


Forbidden Treasures

by BerryTarts



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Captain!levi, Confessions, Dominant Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Drinking Songs, Exploration, F/F, F/M, Horseback Riding, Love Triangle, M/M, Massaging, Mermaids, POV Alternating, Pirates, Shapeshifter!Armin, Siren!Eren, levi has a bloody past, levi has a crush on eren and he knows it, mermaid!eren, riren - Freeform, sub eren, werewolf!Mikasa
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-26
Updated: 2018-04-16
Packaged: 2018-07-26 23:03:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 22
Words: 70,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7593841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BerryTarts/pseuds/BerryTarts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eren and Armin, recently banished from their pod, decide to swim to the surface and follow a ship towards land. With Eren's new legs they are taken in by Isabel and Farlan, and eventually Levi, and get to explore the humans way of life. But what if, to explore more of the world, they have to go back to the sea?</p><p>Tags WILL change as the story goes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Surface

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren and Armin go to the surface!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please forgive the first chapter for it's abundance of EXPOSITION ;w;

“…Fifty eight… Fifty nine… Sixty! Ready or not, here I come!” Armin shouted, uncovering his eyes and diving into the water leaving little ripples in his wake. Eren peeked over the rock he had situated himself on with sparkling eyes and giggled lightly, the end of his tail swishing from side to side.

The two were playing hide and seek in an underwater cavern they had deemed as home. It was roomy with a high ceiling and filled lowly with water. Rocks were strewn about under and above water for hiding under or behind and a few taller, smoother rocks to lay or sit on, perfect for the two mermaids and their antics.

Currently, Eren was on the tallest rock in the cave, the rock slightly overhanging and hiding his long, blue-green tail and tan torso with its size. It took a lot of upper torso strength for Eren to get up there, but he managed it and was quite proud of his spot.

He listened to Armin come up from under the water and pause before going back under. Since he didn’t need the air, breathing underwater just fine with his gills, Eren suspected Armin was starting to think he wasn’t underwater, _finally._ Eren held back a laugh. It excited him that he could deceive and hide so well. That excitement was usually what got him caught in these kinds of games and he tried his best to breathe and stay hidden.

That didn’t take long though when he peeked over the edge again and saw Armin scratching his head and looking around with his back to him. He snorted and the confused display and when he did he immediately ducked behind the rock again, but it was too late. He knew the game was over when Armin let out a loud “Aha!” and the heard the water swish as the other triumphantly swam towards his rock. Eren however kept quiet as Armin swam around the tall rock, trying and failing to find a way up. After a while he huffed hopelessly. “How did you get up there?” he whined. Eren threw his head back and finally let out all the tension through a jovial laugh.

When the laughter dulled to a few giggles he peeked over to look down at him. “I _cannot_ believe how much you underestimate my strength! I'm offended,” he said sarcastically with a smug expression. Armin had a cute pout on his face as he looked up, having to tilt his head all the way back from right beneath the rock.

“That looks impossible,” he said, then paused. “And you’ve been eating a lot lately. How did you lug your _huge_ _tail_ up that high?” he smirked as Eren's smug look turned into a petulant frown.

“No I haven’t!” he exclaimed, though still he glanced back at his tail. “My tail isn’t getting that big… is it?” he finished the sentence in an unsure mumble and Armin tsked at him.

“Eren you need to find the difference between teasing and truth,” he said and started swimming towards one of the smooth rocks to lay on. The brunette scowled at him, sliding off the top of the rock and landing in the water with a large splash. The water was cold and he adjusted his body temperature to match as he came to the surface.

“I think you might be a little too gullible,” the other said, stretching over the rock on his wet belly and chin in hand. Eren shook the water out of his hair.

“Who care's… it’s not like there’s anyone here but _you_ to trick me.” Armin’s teasing smirk disappeared and was replaced with a frown.

“Eren I know it’s been hard… but what else are we to do? We can’t go back-“

“ _I_ can’t go back,” Eren cut him off, crossing his arms in the water. “You can go back anytime.” Armin sighed and rolled over onto his back on the smooth stone.

“I’d rather be here with my best friend than in the pod being shamed for what I am," he mumbled dismally. Eren’s eyes flitted to Armin’s gills and his pointed and webbed ears. Armin's species was different from that of a "normal" mermaid. He was a shapeshifter mermaid, telling from his ears, the patches of scales and fins placed around his body and the points on the fins at the end of his tail. Armin’s tail and scales were light blue and shimmered to dark blue when he swam underwater, the fins at the end of his tail a lighter tint to finish. His scales and fins matched his big blue eyes and complimented his long blonde hair that was slicked back from his forehead from the salty water.

Eren didn’t have pointed ears, fins or scales on his body, he simply had his tail. His tail was magnificent, if he did say so himself. It changed between green and blue, depending on the light, and had tiny flecks of gold speckled about it. The end fins of his tail were also a light blue, a common trait in their species and most useful in determining gender.

Eren made a point to tell Armin he was a very beautiful mermaid, and he was, but despite his efforts the shapeshifter's mind was still poisoned by the words from members of their ex-pod that would mock his diverse anatomy. Shapeshifter mermaids were rare, very rare in fact, and instead of supporting Armin on his nature, the other pod members looked down upon him for it.

“Again we can’t go back and we can’t just swim around the entire ocean by ourselves,” he said. “It’s dangerous...”

“Well apparently, so am I,” Eren mumbled malevolently. Armin turned to him in distraught.

“Come on Eren! You would never use your ability against them or me or anybody!” he exclaimed, but Eren could only scoff.

“But _they_ think I would,” he replied. “But I guess it’s better this way. I don’t think I want to be in a pod that can’t trust in my abilities or control." The mermaid pulled himself onto another rock like Armin had and rolled onto his back as well. He heard Armin sigh and they drifted into a thoughtful silence.

Eren thought about his banishment. His pod was strictly peaceful, to a fault. They refused shelter to outsiders, had few trading contracts, too many rules, and minimum freedom meaning no one, under any circumstances, was to go to the surface.

Although the pod was strict it was also exquisite. The pod hoarded gold and collected treasures, making beauty a rule by default. This was one of the main reasons they frowned upon Armin. It was hard to make spiked fins and odd bits of scales look beautiful, no matter how much gold and jewels you covered him in. So all they could do was sneer. They barely tried, in Eren's opinion, seeing as Armin had looked just as well as any of the rest of them with just a simple gold headchain, laid upon flowing blonde hair and little jewels dangling from it that twinked in the light. They must've been blind, because Armin was anything but ugly.

Eren was an only child, Eren’s mother not being able to give birth after him, and he was basically a brother to the family of three with how much he stayed over. Eren did his best to protect Armin from accusing eyes and they had fun being loners. His life was a happy one. Up until his parents went missing, just five years ago.

Eren’s mother and father were off from their cave to hunt, leaving Eren with Armin and his grandfather as usual, but something was different this time.

They didn’t come back.

No one knew what happened to them, but instead of sending a search party the pod increased security and blocked trades until two moons had passed. When they were certain there was no danger after the pod, they sent out a party only to find nothing. Eren was left with Armin and his grandfather, the only memory he had of his parents being the gold key hanging around his neck that they had given him as his first treasure, and they grew from there.

Eren overcame his pain. He became determined to find what happened to his parents but he kept this goal to himself and Armin. A silent achievement for them to succeed in the future. Armin promised to stay by Eren’s side until the end, and that one day they should both go to the surface together, just to spite the pod. Eren made no debate, not hesitating to agree with him. These things they kept to themselves.

But one thing they couldn’t have foreseen was Eren’s powers. Every mermaid was born with a special ability locked within them that is revealed when they fully matured. Though for shapeshifters it was always the same. Shapeshifting, of course. But that day twisted their world around. Eren was to be tested. They told him he would be in full control, that he would simply feel it inside him that moon and demonstrate it simply and easily, but they were wrong.

When Eren bit his thumb he blacked out and when he woke up again he was in chains, in a dungeon. No one talked to him, no one looked at him, they just told him to leave. When they let him go and he was finally able to talk to Armin, he learned why.

Eren was a siren, a _male_ siren of all things, with atmokinesis powers. Atmokinesis was the ability to control water, winds and weather, boil and freeze water, summon lightning, the works. Armin had been there and had seen everything. He described how the water around him switched between freezing to unbearably hot, his core temperature unable to keep up with the mingling temperatures, and his eyes kept switching between green and gold. The guards who had stood watch were too shocked to move for a while, but when Eren hadn't let go of his hand, simply biting harder and harder and drawing more and more blood they charged at him, snapped out of shock from the smell of his blood. They never reached him however as when they just about to slam into him he thrust out his bitten hand at them and the water churned. Their tails twisted so painfully they cried out loud enough to be heard under the weight of the sea. Eren was knocked out with the handle end of a sword and dragged into the dungeon, the two mermen taken away to be checked for injuries and all Armin could do was quickly swim home to his grandfather.

From the scene Eren had displayed, the pod had concluded that he had all possible powers and that made him dangerous, too unique, that he attracted attention. It was a unanimous vote (those selfish bastards) that he be banished, never to return. But of course Armin followed him. They left their pod and traveled north as far as they could until they found the cavern.  
That was one month ago. One month. Now they were bored out of their minds and alone.

But it was through this train of thought that Eren realized something he probably should have a long time ago.

“Hey Armin?” he asked. Armin hummed to show he was listening. "We forgot something really important when we left the pod." Armin's eyes snapped open at this but he didn't move, instead humming in monotone question. “Do you want to go to the surface?” He whispered. Armin was quiet for a few moments and they looked at each other at the same time.

“We’re idiots,” Armin said.

“Morons,” Eren agreed. “Well idiot, what are we waiting for?”

Armin smiled. “I’ll race ya’ moron.”

They dived under the water at the same time and hurried through the underwater exit of the cavern.

 ~o0o~

Eren hissed through the water as he stared up at the rapidly approaching surface. _We’re going to do this,_ he thought. _We’re going to the surface and no one can stop us._ The water was illuminated by the sun straight overhead, warming the water and calling to Eren to let it see him. He looked over at Armin who was barely keeping up but looked just as excited as he felt.

They were going to the surface.

The thought encouraged him and he made one final sweep of his tail push him all the way up and he broke the surface with a gasp, wanting to taste the new air and oh did it taste sweet. The sky was bright blue and the sun was out and shining and Eren quickly learned not to look directly at it but how could he have known as he always watched it from beneath the waves?

Armin broke the surface as well and his exclamation of awe was well said as the world currently left Eren speechless. There was water in all directions, the horizon circling them in and making it as though the world was only made of ocean. The waves were small and ragged and battered Eren and Armin around gently as they took in the sky and the breeze and the water and the clouds and just _everything._

Aside from the waves, it was quiet.

Eren was the first to snap out of the reverie and look over to Armin who was still gaping at the blue hues around them. Eren didn’t know what there was to do up here but he knew it wasn’t to just sight see, he wanted to play. Eren splashed Armin with an armful of water and Armin spluttered out of the dream to laugh at him.

They swam around each other, splashing, diving, racing, all the while laughing and screaming at each other. They rolled under the surface and snuck up on each other. They went deep beneath the waves and swam up with so much force that when they broke the surface they went flying. This was one of the happiest day of their lives and neither of them denied their time with it.

That is, until Armin froze. Eren was about to splash him one more time and make him ‘it’ when he saw the look on his friends face.

“Hey Armin? You okay?” Eren asked worriedly. Armin raised a hand out of the water and pointed behind Eren and he turned anxiously. What could make Armin look so disturbed?

That.

That could just about do it.

About two or three miles away was a huge ship, a _huge ship,_ wielding three large masts that were pure white and spread open, using the winds to glide the ship through the water like a bird landing in a pond. Eren stared on in amazement. “Armin… what is that?” he asked astonished.

“T-That’s a-a-a sh-ship,” Armin stuttered. Eren looked back at him and studied his expression. He looked like a mix of troubled, scared, and in awe and when Eren raised an eyebrow at him he kept staring at the ship. He turnedback to the ship curiously and started swimming towards it until Armin grabbed his shoulder. “Wh-whoa! Hey, what do you think you’re doing?!” Armin now just looked scared.

“I’m gonna go check it out, obviously,” he replied and swished his tail again but Armin held him back.

“Eren… there are humans on that ship…” he said anxiously. “I didn’t think they were real, but from what I’ve read in the tomes they’re evil, destructive creatures that really _don’t like mermaids,_ ” he voiced the last bit as a fast warning but Eren just looked back at the ship with determined eyes.

“The tomes are like what? Hundreds? – no – _thousands_ of moons old? I thought humans were just a myth but if you’re saying there are humans on that ship then what if, maybe, they think _we_ are a myth?” he asked.

Armin scoffed. “Around a thousand and a half moons old, thank you, and… you’re probably right,” he admitted. “But if we go check it out we stay out of sight- do you hear me? We don’t know what humans are like nowadays…” Eren nodded excitedly.

“Then what are we waiting for?” He swiftly dived beneath the waves before the blonde could answer, pushing himself forward but low enough that the humans wouldn’t see his tail from above.

As the ship approached it got longer and bigger and this boat was _huge._ It went well under the water and was rapidly approaching, made of dark brown wood that was probably very thick. Eren had never seen wood before so when he reached the boat he laid a smooth hand on it and felt the material. It was definitely thick, he could feel it from the outside. It was hard and had barnacles covering most of the bottom as well. Eren checked behind him as Armin was just arriving and signaled they split up and circle the boat. Armin nodded and they went their separate ways, Armin going towards the bow and Eren towards the stern.

Eren made fast time and kept low under the water, not wanting to alert anything of his presence. He finally reached the very back of the stern and breached the surface to find part of the boat hanging over him and a large piece of wood barely connected and swiveling from side to side slowly. Above the wood there were a few windows and above that a railing.

Eren promised he wouldn’t be seen but seeing the boat from just the outside wasn’t really all that satisfying. There were _humans_ on this ship. He wanted to see _everything._  He couldn't settle for just the outside when this massive of a ship loomed above, probably carrying a hundred humans on board!

He whipped his head up with an idea and smiled before diving deep under the water. He kept going until he deemed it a well enough distance and looked back to the surface, put himself in the right position just behind the overhand of the ship, and then started pumping his tail with all his strength. The surface started to rapidly grow closer as his tail drove through the water and when he broke the surface he went flying high enough to catch the floor just below the railing.

He muttered a triumphant “yes!” as he held himself there for a few moments before pulling himself up more and peeking over the edge, his tail hanging loosely and swaying slightly with the ship.

What he saw was astounding.

[[X]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVhlTNrdn0g)

Humans. All over the ship from where he could see. They were on the masts, in the netting, yelling at each other, laughing, talking, working, doing all sorts of things. But that was beyond his immediate vision. Before him stood a few more humans, leaning over a table with their back's to him (thankfully) and handling strange tools on something laid out over it.

The humans were blocking most of his view on the man at the wheel and Eren could only see the back part of him, but there was enough space to note jet black hair and a flowing green cape with an emblem of two contrasting wings overlapping each other. The cape was greatly decorated with black and gold lining and the man also wore a black slanted hat with two large black feathers and one red feather sticking out from it. He noticed that the emblem was also on the flag on one of the masts and he wondered what it represented.

One of the humans jumped onto the quarterdeck making Eren squirm back as he had been peeking over the flooring just a bit too much. “Just a few more hours north and we’ll be at Sina boys!” shouted the overexcited human. It appeared to be female, with ragged brown hair tied back loosely and goggles on her head. She was wearing an open brown vest over a white button up shirt and loose brown pants that sank into brown knee-high boots. All the humans wore similar foot-wear and it dissapointed Eren a bit. He had been hoping to see feet! While few also donned the same cape like the man at the wheel, their capes weren’t as decorated nor as long.

“I can’t wait to get back, it’s been ages!” said another human, a male, with greyish-brown hair who stood back from the table and placed his hands on his hips.

“I just want to drink fresh beer and eat real food,” said another male that had his arms crossed and a scowl on his face. Another human, that appeared to be female, walked up behind the female with goggles and hummed.

“I bet the _captain_ can’t wait to get back too, right captain?” said the new female. This female had short strawberry blond hair and wore a plane green cape on her shoulders. Under the cape Eren could see she was wearing just a white button up and tighter black pants with a light brown sash hanging loosely on her hips. The man at the wheel grunted, uninterested, and the female with goggles whined.

“C’mon Cap’n don’t be like that!” said the crazy female throwing an arm over his shoulders. Eren tilted his head. Captain?

The man at the wheel sighed, annoyed now. “Honestly I can’t wait to get away from _you_ Hanji,” he replied with a tenor voice. He still hadn’t turned around or taken much interest in anyone but straight ahead of him.

The female, Hanji, laughed loudly and released his shoulders. “I don’t think you’ll ever get away from me my short cinnamon bun!” She went back over to the shorter female with short hair and slung her arm over the others shoulders while the Captain growled, hunching his shoulders. “You know… if you stare at the ocean any harder I would think you want to marry it,” she said and the male, the captain, grunted again making Eren stifle a laugh. These humans didn’t look all that threatening. They were… good. They joked and laughed and had emotions just like Eren and Armin. Why did Armin think they were so dangerous?

Then Eren noticed what was on their hips. Hidden beneath their capes they all had belts with at least one sword attached in a sheath, along with a few small knives and a strange skin holding some kind of metal object. _Why did they need all those weapons?_ Eren thought. _Are they in danger?_ Eren stared dumbly at them and didn’t notice something slapping his tail until someone called up to him.

“Eren!” Armin whisper shouted and Eren ducked from the railing to see a very scared and panicked looking Armin. “Eren what are you doing?! Get down from there!”

“Did you say something?” Eren’s blood turned cold and he peeked over again to find the captain turned slightly to the rest of them but he still couldn’t see his face aside from his jaw line.

“No, why did you hear something?”

“Oh yeah I heard something too! Like someone whisper yelling…” Eren decided that was his cue to leave and he let go of his hold on the railing and fell into the water below. He and Armin dived beneath the waves and looked up to the surface to see two figures looking over the railing where Eren just was. Armin hit Eren on the shoulder and narrowed his eyes at him.

 _What were you thinking?!_ His signed with his hands. Eren looked back at the blonds and made a few hand gestures as well. _I was curious…_  He put on an apologetic look. _I’m sorry._ Armin took in a lot of water through his gills and let it out like an underwater sigh before signaling back, _so what do we do now?_ Eren immediately pointed at the surface and narrowed his eyes in determination. _We go back up._ Armin raised his hands in a way that asked, _Why?_ Eren pointed to each of their mouths and then towards the ship. _So we can talk about the ship!_ Armin looked between the ship and Eren and slumped his shoulders before pointing at his eyes and cutting through the water with his hand. _Okay… but we can’t be seen._ Eren nodded and Armin led the way to the bow. Once they were there they broke the surface right underneath a carved figurine of a bird carved into the wood and Eren stared at it in amazement.

“Humans are so strange,” Eren said when Armin rose out of the water beside him. “They laugh and talk and work like us, but in a way that isn’t underwater. It’s also really strange to see… legs.” Armin smacked him upside the head.

“You weren’t supposed to go up there and look at them Eren! What if one of them had seen you?!” Armin whisper shouted, trying to stay quiet but also wanting him to know how angry he was. Eren rubbed his head and glared at him.

“Are you joking? These are humans Armin!” Eren’s voice was rising and Armin quickly shushed him. Eren huffed. “And… Armin what’s a captain?” Armin’s eyes widened and he leaned forward.

“You saw the captain?” he asked. Eren nodded.

“Yeah. He had black hair and wore a cape that matched the flags and he was holding a wheel. I didn’t get a good look at his face though,” he said.

“The captain is a human, that is usually male, that controls the ship and the crew. They give the orders and the crew would follow him to the depths,” he answered. Eren’s eyes widened and he looked back at the ship.

 “Wow…” he said in wonder. “But… why? Why would they sacrifice themselves like that?” Armin shook his head.

“Maybe because he proved himself? I don’t really know...” They sat in silence for a minute or so, the lapping waves shadowed under the boats cover. “What should we do now? I don’t want to go back to that cavern after being up here for so long.” Eren thought for a moment.

“I say we go with the ship,” he proposed. “I don’t want to go back either and I want to see more from these humans.” Armin nodded in agreement.

“Besides we have nowhere else to go. Following the ship is like… we’re going on an adventure!” he said excitedly and Eren laughed. “But I don’t want to just sit around and wait for this huge ship to reach wherever it’s going.” Eren looked at the ship in thought.

“We could get rid of some of those barnacles underneath,” he suggested. Armin shrugged.

“I guess. It’s not like anyone else is gonna do it,” he agreed. Eren leaned forward in the water and gave Armin a hug.

“I’m so glad you came with me Armin,” he said affectionately and Armin hugged him back.

“I’m glad too,” he answered. “Hey maybe we can find some of _their_ tomes and do some research!” he said excitedly. Eren laughed and let him go before diving beneath the ship to start coaxing the barnacles off.

~o0o~

Eren and Armin had switched from scraping off barnacles to finding things to eat to playing above the waves far from the ship but always keeping it in sight. Eren had suggested Armin do what he did and take a look at the humans but he denied immediately. Armin was just fine seeing the humans from afar until they made it to land.

It had been a few hours since they had found the ship and even longer since they had breached the surface and they hadn’t left it for more than a handful of minutes. It was when land was in view that they realized they had no idea what to do when they got there.

“I mean we can’t go on land," Eren said. "For one they’ll see us, which leads to a bunch of problems, and obviously we don’t have legs like they do.” He held his gold key with nervousness.

Armin sat by in the water and furrowed his brow thoughtfully. “Well… there is one thing…” Eren’s ears perked but Armin waved him off. “I don’t want to do it today though. We’ve done a lot more today than we have in the past month,” he said. Eren deflated a little but agreed. He looked around him, at the ship a mile away, the land even further away, and the skies that were so clear and bright.

“We went to the surface today Armin,” he said with a small smile. Armin smiled back at him.

“Yes we did,” he agreed, also appreciating the view. “Yes we did.”

 ~o0o~

When they reached land it was dusk.

Land looked like the world underneath, only it wasn’t at all. Underwater there were hills of rocks and sand, dull and dark colors contrasting the mermaids and their beauty greatly. But land was bright, vibrant, and dry, and was covered with orange and purple light as the sun set on the ocean’s horizon. It was the most beautiful thing they had ever seen.

When the shore got too close, Armin and Eren abandoned the ship for shelter. They were new to land, being brainwashed into thinking it was incredibly dangerous didn’t help at all with their situation, but they were banished and after seeing the humans so far Eren wasn’t afraid to get close. He wanted them to hide under one of the docks to still be close but Armin decided that was a bit _too_ bold and also if they were going to get close to land he would prefer it if they were farther away from the humans.

They hid a bit of a ways off, behind a few trees that had fallen into the water, and watched as the huge ship docked and started depositing the humans. Males and females alike started wandering off the ship after about a half hour in port, other humans greeting them on the dock wit hugs, kisses, firm handshakes, some being carried off by others due to exhaustion.

“Hey Armin look,” Erem said. “It’s the human they kept calling captain.” He pointed towards the dock at a small group of humans walking with the black haired male. Again Eren couldn’t make out his face, but he recognized the decorated cape and frilly hat, along with the other humans who were hovered over the charts earlier. They were walking along the dock and the one called _Hanji_ seemed to be talking the most out of all of them.

“He looks almost exactly like how I imagined,” said Armin, then snorted. “Only shorter.” And that’s when Eren noticed that yeah, he really was short, and laughed along with him. The laughter was cut short when Eren noticed the captain stop walking, making the rest of the group stop, and look towards their direction. Eren panicked and shut Armin up by stuffing his head under the water and sinking down as well. He peeked his head around the trunk they were hiding behind and watched as the group questioned the captain, but he just answered with a shrug and probably a snappy comment and they continued on their way.

Eren waited another minute before letting Armin come back and getting a smack over the head. “What was that?!” he said harshly and Eren rubbed his head. Smacking his head was becoming a bad habit and Eren didn’t like it at all.

“The captain looked over at us while we were laughing. I couldn’t risk him seeing us,” he said, then laughed again. “It’s like he could hear someone insulting him from far off. It was creepy.” Armin replaced his annoyed frown with a small smile and chortled as well.

“Come on you idiot. It’s getting dark and we still need to find something to eat and a place to stay the night,” he said. “And also I want to tell you something I’ve been thinking about lately- tomorrow.” Eren frowned at his friends vagueness again and knew he probably wouldn’t be sleeping tonight as Armin dived under the water with a smirk on his face. He cursed Armin internally and followed.

~o0o~

That night they made shelter in a small cave embedded in the side of a mountain overhanging the water. It went quite deep and the water was shallow but it spread throughout all of the cave floor. The two caught a few craw fish for dinner and talked for a bit about all the things they did that day. They went to the surface, they found a ship, they found humans, they found land, they broke multiple rules established by the pod and they didn’t care in the _slightest._

In the end, they did more in that one day than they had had in their entire lives and Eren fell asleep next to Armin in the cool water, fed and in his element, thinking about a huge ship and red and black feathers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated! (0//w//^) ~ <3


	2. To Land!

The next morning Eren woke with muddled memory, not expecting the brightness behind his eyelids instead of the soft blue glow of underwater fungi and glinting rocks. It didn’t take long for his mind to refresh the past days events and when his mind finally processed he jolted up, scaring the other mermaid who had been shaking him awake. Eren complained about how late in the day it had already become but Armin disputed that he needed the rest with how much they exhausted themselves.

Armin suggested they go find something to eat and so they vacated their cave and took deep breathes of the fresh air before diving down to catch some breakfast. When they finished they decided to go back to the spot they observed the humans from before to see what the humans were doing.

Eren noticed that there was not one human on the ship, though many were stalking the docks with rugged and drowsy movements.  _What happened to them?_ He thought. _Is there something going on?_ Eren decided to leave it be. Maybe they wanted some land time, they were land creatures after all. Who knows how long they were out on sea?

Watching the ship became boring fast, so Armin suggested they go back to the cave and talk about his idea and Eren followed eagerly. “Will this get us closer to the humans?” he asked impatiently. “More information? A spell? Invisibility?”

“Oh dear Neptune Eren shut up!” said Armin and Eren pulled himself up onto a rock, ignoring his complaint.

“I hate just sitting around and watching… are we going to talk to one? Show ourselves?” He widened his eyes at Armin who looked at him through hooded eyes. “Are we going to capture one? Kill one?!”

“Eren!” The blonde shouted and Eren stopped in his rant. “We’re not going to kill anyone!" Eren's shoulders slumped. He hadn't _really_ been expecting them to do that, but, it was a possibility. "Now I’m just going to give it to you straight,” he started and Eren nodded, listening intently. “I’m going to shapeshift into a creature that lives on the island and observe the humans closer while yougo swim around andfind some clothes.” Eren tilted his head with a scowl.

“Why do I need to find _clothes?_ ” he asked and Armin sighed, crossing his arms.

“Because we’re going to give you legs,” he said.

Eren blinked at him. Once. Twice. A few seconds went by.

“...What?” he asked dumbly and Armin sighed again.

“Eren,” he said, grabbing his face between his hands and squishing it. “We are going to turn you human and go on land,” he said slowly and Eren’s eyes grew impossibly wider.

“What?!” he exclaimed, ripping his face out of Armin’s hands and holding his wrists. “Armin, I’m gonna be human?! This will be awesome! I can go talk and walk with the humans and get close and- wait but how?” Armin looked down at his hand and Eren followed his eyes to the glittering sapphire ring on his right hand ring finger. “My ring?” he asked and Armin nodded.

“How much magic do you take from it?” he asked. Eren shrugged.

“Near to none,” he answered. Armin nodded again.

“Good, because we’re going to need every last drop if we’re going to give you legs,” he said. Eren tilted his head as a few questions came to mind.

“So it will take a lot of magic to get legs?” he asked and Armin nodded. “So only one of us can have them…”

“If you mean to ask why you should be the one with legs, it's because of multiple reasons." Armin backed away and looked down at his hands under the water. "For one, you’re determined, so you won’t get embarrassed as easily about doing something stupid." Eren glowered at that. "Two, you’re curious in an innocent way that the humans won’t blame you for. Three… you’re way stronger than me Eren. If things go to tartarus you will come out fine. I just... I can’t do it... I’m not as strong, determined or brave as you,” he finished sadly.

“But Armin… won’t this take away your ears and scales?” he asked, not wanting to say, _won’t this make you look normal?_  Armin shook his head.

“Another thing. It will only give you _legs,_ it won’t change you’re upper torso in the slightest. So _I_ can’t because I’ll look like a human mixed with a fish even with the new legs,” he explained and Eren dropped from his rock to swim forward and hug his friend.

“Armin, you know your scales are pretty right?” he asked. Armin hesitated.

“I don’t really think so…” he answered but still hugged Eren in return. The brunette squeezed him tighter.

“Well they are, so stop thinking they aren’t.” He let Armin go, holding his shoulders as he looked him in the eyes with assuring eyes. Armin’s sad eyes sparkled with affection.

“You’re the best brother I could ever have Eren,” he said and Eren scoffed.

“I’m not the _best_ brother if I'm being honest...” Armin laughed at him before pulling away and heading for the entrance to the open cave.

“I'm going to get started,” he said. “The spell won’t take any time at all, but I need to take a bit of time for research. I'll be back soon.” And with that Armin dived beneath the water and left Eren by himself. He quietly swam in a few fast circles to relieve himself of the excitement.

He was going to be a human?! _Twenty points for Armin,_ he thought. _In fact, all the points to Armin. Armin is the smartest being on the planet!_ With his next move in mind, Eren left the cave.

 _Where in Tartarus am I supposed to find clothes close to the water?_ he thought and grunted irritably under the water. _Where should I even start?_ Eren floated just underneath the waves in the open water for a few moments, thinking. _I guess I’ll swim around the shores to start._  He pumped his tail and headed off in direction of the shore.

Eren knew he had to search the land, but refused to get too close to it. Armin was sure to throw a fit if he was caught in a fishing net and the humans found him. He held himself back a mile from the sand and peeked above the waves frequently, not knowing what he wanted to find but hoping something would show. Eren had swam a few miles or so from the cave, and even farther from the docks, when he found a house right next to the shore. The backyard resided on a part of land that didn’t connect to the water and instead became steep rock a few feet above the water. Right beneath the steep rock was a shallow part of the shore that had small waves lapping against the rock. There were clothes hanging in the trees right above the water and Eren praised whoever was listening one last time before swimming closer.

He scanned the area for humans before approaching the shallow area. In this spot, Eren was basically sitting on his stomach and he couldn’t jump out of the water to grab the clothes because it was so shallow. He decided to make do with what he could and grabbed a long stick, prying the clothes off the trees, mostly poking them a few times until they fell off. He managed, after a few minutes, to grab a dark red shirt, some baggy brown pants, and a black sash.

He didn’t know whether to keep the clothes dry or wet as under the water the clothes would be heavy and above water would get him noticed. He vouched for dry but instead of being obvious, Eren used some magic from his ring to keep the clothes dry underwater until he made it back to the cave.

Armin would be proud of him, wherever he was. Eren hoped he came back soon. What would Armin even transform into to get information? And what kind of information? Eren sighed, placing the clothes on one of the more dry rocks before leaving to go check on the ship.

Many other ships had docked at this point, but Eren was more interested in the one they followed. While other ships had red, navy blue, or gold flags, the ship with the green flag held Eren’s attention. He wanted to know what the ship was called, as Armin had mentioned humans like to name their ships. He also wondered what the flag emblem represented, how the crew acted, who the captain was, he was especially entranced by the captain.

The humans were once again unloading things from the ship, but the captain and those with him were nowhere in sight which left Eren a little disappointed. He had seen a few of their faces but hadn’t been close enough to determine anyone’s eye color and hadn’t seen anything from the captain but his hair, skin and angled jaw. It was a bit strange to him how he started daydreaming about what he might look like.

Eren knew he was short, but he walked stoically and with heavy purpose. He held his head high and kept one hand on his belt at all times, from what he'd seen. It was with these observations Eren had made a very courageous and handsome character in his mind, which made him wanting to see his face even more.

He turned around to go back to the cavern when suddenly two humans came around the bend behind him. Panic filled his veins and he hurriedly dived into the water, splashing his tail to get under quickly and swim into the open water. He swam around the bend that the humans came from, with much distance put between him and the shore, and hid behind a large rock. When he peeked out of the water he saw the two humans, a female with copper hair tied back into two low pigtails and a male with ashy blond hair, standing on the shore of the bend. They were both staring at the spot that Eren had just been.

Eren's heart beat hard in his chest. Reluctantly, he used his ring to hear what they were talking about. Slowly their conversation got louder to Eren’s ears and he chewed on his lip nervously.

“…see that Farlan?!” the girl with pigtails waved her arms, pointing at where he had been and Eren felt his face go hot. _Oh no no no no no no-_

“See what?” the blond asked and Eren sighed. _There’s hope, it's fine, maybe they didn't really see him-_

“That _huge ass tail_ that just went under the water over there!” NO HOPE WE’RE FOUND WE’RE DONE-

“Isabel I didn’t see anything. It was probably a fish jumping out of the water and your eyes played a trick on you.” Eren slumped back on the rock tensely, his heart hammering from the panic. The female put a hand on her head and started stuttering but the male stopped her with a hand to her mouth. “Isabel, this is the first day of my few days off work. Please don’t waste it dwelling on a big fish,” he said and the female sighed.

“You’re right, I’m sorry,” she said. “We should spend the next few hours having fun!” Eren decided not to waste anymore of his ring's magic and sighed contently. _They didn’t see anything, everything’s fine…_ He resorted to swim around for a bit, deep underwater just to be cautious, and wait for Armin to come back.

~o0o~

Half the day had passed when he returned to the cave. The sun had sunk from it's perch straight above, turning the sky a pale blue color and the sun light orange high on the horizon. When he poked his head above the water in the cave, there was a small creature with tiny claws poking out from under a feathered belly clutching onto one of the smooth rocks. Eren hadn’t ever seen a a creature like this. It's a way it was cute, it's tiny head twisting towards him when it took notice of him and blinking two beady little black eyes. Still, he practically jumped out of his skin when it started talking.

“Eren it’s me,” it said. Eren eyed the creature oddly with his tilted head tilted.

“Armin?” he asked. “What are you?” Armin twisted his little head at him and Eren grimaced. What kind of creature was that?

“It’s called a _parrot,_ Eren," he said, his voice was pitched higher than usual, but only slightly. It still unnerved the brunette. "Or generally referred to as a _bird._  And give me a moment." Eren still couldn't wipe off the grimace after Armins explanation. It twisted it's head so free-formerly and it freaked him out a little.

Armin started to glow and Eren looked away as Armin transformed back from a bird into his mermaid self. When the light dimmed again he looked back to see Armin, his usual self, sitting on the rock with a smug smile on his face.

“Psh, I was just a bird Eren. Nothing to be afraid of,” he said, though he paused and his smug smile slipped off to match Eren's grimace. “Although I was a bit afraid of the one I transformed into when I first saw it.” Eren rolled his eyes and swam further forward.

“No, really? Not the big and mighty shapeshifter of the southern oceans!” Eren teased and this time Armin rolled his eyes. “I got the clothes,” he said, gesturing towards the clothes resting on the large, smooth rock. “They were just hanging on a tree over the water.”

“Humans do that to let their clothes dry after they clean them,” Armin supplied and Eren made an impressed look. “One of the things I learned while I was a bird. I flew around and watched the humans and also listened to their conversations. They didn’t seem to mind me and I actually saw a lot of other birds that looked just like me sitting around in the trees.”

“I guess that means that birds are normal around here,” Eren said with a smile. Armin nodded, then raised an eyebrow at him.

“You ready?” he asked. Eren’s face merged into confusion.

“Huh?”

“We’re giving you legs come on,” he said and flopped off of his rock into the water.

“Wh-what? Right now?!” he exclaimed and Armin started pushing him towards the rock.

“It's now or never Eren,” he said simply. Eren started floundering for words but Armin cut him short. “Eren, this is what we _want!_ To go on land, meet the humans, go on an adventure!” he exclaimed. He gave Eren an inquiring look. “Are you… scared?”

“Of course I am Armin!” Eren cried. “I’m scared out of my mind! One of the humans almost saw me today! I panicked and made sure they didn’t see anything past an illusion but what if they _had_ seen me? All of me?” Eren rubbed his shoulders and looked away. “What would they have done?”

Armin gave him small smile and pulled him in for a hug. “Eren," he said. "It’s okay to be scared.” Eren hugged him back. “Forgot to mention, but you should know that this spell with make it so you can switch between legs and tail. If things go wrong, we can always just go back into the sea and try again somewhere else, far away where no one would know us.” Eren thought about it and nodded into his shoulder.

“That made this all sound a lot safer,” he said and they pulled back from each other.

“Good because that was what I was going for.” He shoved Eren towards the rock again. “Now give me your ring, sit on that rock, and let me work my magic,” he said with a wink and Eren rolled his eyes, pushing him away to pull himself on the rock.

“Alright,” he said, sitting up straight and determination burning in his eyes. “Let’s do this.” Armin nodded and took his ring, creating a little distance.

“You might feel a slight tingle...” Eren shot him a glare but Armin just laughed in return, which calmed him only slightly. Armin slid the ring on his finger and pointed it at Eren as the sapphire started to glow a vibrant violet. Eren closed his eyes as his tail started tingling and then subsided to a numb sensation. Eren squeezed his eyes tighter.

“You’re doing great Eren,” Armin said distractedly. Eren took a deep breath. _Think of land,_ he thought _. Think of the ship, think of the humans and all the new thing’s we’re going to see._ Eren tried to relax and let the spell do what it needed to do.

When he could feel his lower half again, he didn’t really know what he was feeling. “Whoa…” Armin said. “You can open your eyes now.” Eren did and immediately looked down. Two smooth, tan legs sat where his tail used to be.

Along with… another thing.

“Whoa,” he said in awe, raising both of his legs, bending his knees, wiggling his toes. “Armin look! Legs!” He stretched out the new limbs and kicked the water weakly a few times. “Oh but... what is that?” He pointed to the appendage jerking lightly between his legs.

“That’s what human’s call a _penis_ Eren,” Armin explained, chortling halfway through. “It’s the human male genitals.” Eren stuck his tongue out and grimaced.

“Blegh, mating. I don’t need to hear that talk again Armin.”

“ _Well_ ,” Armin stretched the word with a smug grin as he swam closer and touched one of Eren’s new legs. “You do realized you're old enough for mating season to take affect now, right?” Eren waved a hand at him.

“That’s not for another moon. And it’s not like there’s anyone for me to mate with. We left the pod!” Armin shook his head at him.

“That will only make the whole thing more painful,” he said with a wistful sigh and Eren rolled his eyes, pushing himself up.

“Whatever I don’t need to think about that right now,” he said with a grunt. “I have legs!” Said legs were still a bit tingly from the transformation and completely collapsed under the new weight when he tried to stand. “Whoa-” Eren lowered himself back into a sitting position. “This might be harder than we thought,” he said and Armin laughed.

“We should let you practice walking in the water first, then see how you do on land.” He held a hand out and Eren took it, sliding into the water easily which reached up to the middle of his chest. “See the water is what you’re used to and also it holds up, like, half of your weight,” Armin said and Eren agreed with him.

“Yeah…” he said with more courage. “Hey Armin?” he asked taking a slow step and Armin hummed, taking hold of both of his hands to keep him balanced. “When we go on land, can we stay close to the water?” Armin chuckled.

“Of course we can,” he said. “This is an adventure not a quest. We’re trying to have fun and learn new things, potentially break as many rules made by the pod as we can without actually getting into danger.” Eren giggled at that and took another step, the water cold on his new legs.

Eren realized that he couldn’t change his body temperature and shuddered. "H-Hey! My temperature can't adjust!" he cried.

“I guess that organ is in your tail and disappeared when you got legs,” Armin replied with a shrug. Eren started shivering lightly and squeezed his hands.

“I-Is this how humans warm themselves? By shaking?" Armin studied him with intrigued eyes and hummed, impressed. "And I feel hotter than usual, but this is probably normal human body temperature right?” 

“It probably feels really hot because you’re used to being cold all the time.” Eren nodded in agreement and Armin led him in a circle as he walked at a slow speed.

“You’re doing great Eren,” Armin encouraged as the brunettes steps became more determined. The cavern floor beneath the water was splayed with tiny, gravely rocks, smoothed over slightly from the years of erosion so they didn't break the skin of his new feet. “We should also teach you how to swim. You may be able to swim fine with a tail but legs are a whole other situation.” Eren nodded excitedly, another shudder wracking through his body before he dunked his head under the water. Armin had to remind him that he didn’t have gills, but even without them Eren could hold his breath for nearly two minutes. Eren was quick to learn swimming as he lived in the water his entire life. Even with his new limbs, Eren still knew how to wield the waters and move with the waves. He kicked and pushed himself easily through the water with his new smooth legs, and although Eren was a fast learner they still practiced for an hour or so before Armin deemed him ready for the real deal.

“I’ll grab the clothes to keep them dry,” Armin said. “But I’ll also stay close to you in case you need my help.” Eren smiled at him and took his hand as they started swimming out of the cave and around the bend.

They found an area with more tree cover and the two mermaids made sure the coast was clear (pun entirely intended) before Eren crawled out of the frothy ocean and onto the shore with the clothes. A light shined behind him and then Armin, as a parrot, flew over his head, perching on one of the many rocks strewn around the beach.

Armin, like before, was a bright yellow colored parrot with blue accents and long feathers. His beak was rounded and a bright orange color that faded into dark brown at the pointed end and there were two feathers on the top of his head that pointed upwards like ears.

“Armin you look so cute!” Eren exclaimed, collapsing in the sand near the rock Armin resided on. Armin puffed his little chest out and ruffled his wings.

“Shut up!” he said indignantly, his squeaking voice making Eren giggle. “Hurry and put on the clothes, Eren! If any humans see you as a you are right now they’ll get offended and things might get _hostile_.”

Eren felt a cold spike shoot through him at his words and frantically started trying to put on the pants, but Armin stopped him with a squawk. “Eren holy Neptune calm down!” he said and Eren froze with one arm in the pant leg. “Okay, guess I’m going to have to lead you through this. Take your arm out of that. Yes, now put your leg in that hole. No not that leg. There you go, now the other leg.”

Armin lead him through the process of getting dressed and slowly Eren got his pants and shirt on, which were both a little baggy, but Eren held this pants up by tying the black sash around his waist and by the time they were done Eren looked like a regular human. “Alright you look good,” Armin said and leaped off his rock, flying over to a thin tree stump and perching there. “Now you should try walking around on land. I won’t be able to catch you if you fall so take it slow alright?”

Eren nodded and wobbly stood, taking a heavy, unbalanced step forward with his new feet weakly holding him up on the soft sand.

“I’ve never felt sand like this before,” he said and buried his toes under the material with a giggle. He started taking unbalanced, wobbling steps around the small area on the shore while Armin called out encouragements and reassurances. 

Time passed with much grunting and stumbling but soon Eren was able to walk in a straight line without so much thought at all about what he was doing.

“Great job Eren!” Armin praised and Eren walked towards him smugly. “You could pass for a normal human I think.”

“I don’t think I’ll ever be a normal human Armin,” Eren said then gave him a questioning gaze. “Armin why can’t you shapeshift into a human?” he asked and Armin raised his wings in what Eren would like to call a shrug, just for a bird.

“It doesn’t matter what creature I turn into, if it looks humanoid it will have the same features that I do as a mermaid.” Eren let out an “ah” of understanding. “Meaning same ears and scales...” Eren snapped his fingers and Armin looked up at him from the stump he was perched on. Eren seemed to be really tall as a human, not that his tail wasn’t long as a mermaid, it was just unexpected.

“Armin, I understand that the scales and fins would give us away easier but they are still very pretty and you shouldn’t be ashamed of them,” Eren lectured and Armin looked away. “Now,” Eren started walking in a circle, just to show off that he could. “What should we do now that I’ve mastered the ways of-“

“Hello?” asked a new voice that made Eren jump and stumbled backward. Off balance and panicked he fell, slamming his head into a large rock in the sand.

The world spun and Eren vaguely felt something warm trickle down his face. He heard Armin squawk in surprise and someone else shout before his vision went blurry and the world went dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated! (0//w//^) ~ <3


	3. Isabel and Farlan

When Eren regained some of his consciousness his body felt like lead. His head hurt like a storm was pounding against the walls of his skull and he groaned, raising a heavy hand to his head and squeezing it.

“Eren?” Armin's voice called his name but it sounded muffled. “Eren are you alright?” Eren groaned again and squeezed his head tighter. The feeling of little claws digging into his forehead became clearer and he finally opened his eyes.

Eren stared at the sky in confusion. It was a noticeably darker than the pale blue it had been before and the blurry figure of Armin’s feathered head peeked into his field of view. “ _Squawk!_ Eren Eren!” Armin cawed and Eren blinked his eyes in confusion. _Why isn’t he talking in his normal tone?_ he thought. His vision gradually started becoming clearer until all of a sudden two big green eyes assaulted his vision and a loud female voice started talking to him.

“Oh my gosh, he’s awake! I'm so sorry for scaring you, it was a total accident!”

“Isabel give him a second to reclaim his bearings!” said another voice. Eren thought he recognized the name.

 _Isabel…_ he thought. _I’ve heard that name before I’m sure… isn’t that the girl who almost saw me earlier?_ Eren’s body moved of its own accord, running on panicked adrenaline, and he jolted up, immediately regretting it when he connected heads with the girl leaning over him and he fell back on the sand, grasping his head tightly and groaning. Armin had abandoned Eren’s head before they hit and he heard the other human sigh as they rolled around in pain.

The female hissed. “I guess I deserved that,” she groaned and Eren sat up, still holding his head as he tried reopening his eyes again. When he succeeded he saw the female human sitting back on her legs, one hand rubbing her forehead and the other holding her up in the sand. Standing behind her was the male human with blond hair and apparently light blue eyes.

“Yes you did,” he said simply. Eren stared at them in confusion. “Hey kid are you alright?” the male asked and Eren looked up at him, still holding his own head.

“Who’re you?” Eren asked and swayed a little to the side. “What happ’n?” The blond kneeled down besides the girl and reached forward to touch Eren’s head. Eren flinched back and he drew his hand back, an odd expression on his face.

“Well you reopened your cut for one,” he said while staring at his head wound. “As for how it happened, Isabel accidentally scared you and you fell head first into a rock. We bandaged up your head but after that your parrot wouldn’t let us near you until you woke up.”

Suddenly he heard a vicious squawk and Armin jumped over the sand on his little claws toward him. Eren could tell he was anxious and worried with how he wouldn’t stop moving and chirped a lot. He took his hands off his head to open his arms and let Armin jump into them. He hugged Armin lightly, as not to break his fragile wings, and tried talking to him but his head was still muddled so it all came out as “M’kay Arm’s I'm mkay.” Armin responded with clucks and short trills, his small beak rubbing into Eren’s chest.

“That’s adorable…” Eren looked up sharply, remembering that there were two humans watching them, and let Armin drop out of his grasp.

“Sorry…” he said drowsily and pushed Armin up onto his shoulder, who started nibbling and rubbing his beak in his hair.

“No don’t be sorry!” said the female. “I should be sorry! I made you ram your head in a rock and you’re apologizing! Guh, I’m the _worst!_ ” Eren didn’t know what to say but he didn’t need to when the girl got up, dusted off her shorts and offered Eren a hand. “I say you let me cook you dinner and tend your cut as a proper apology.” Eren heard the other human hum and mutter something under his breath and the girl jabbed him with an elbow. Eren looked between the female’s hand and her face.

She looked at him with large, hopeful green eyes and Eren reached out a hesitant hand. _The first time I’ve ever touched a human…_ he thought and placed his hand into the girls. She pulled him up slowly and he stumbled forward heavily when he got to his feet but the humans caught him under the arms and slung them over their shoulders. Eren groaned when he felt his head start pounding again and Armin warbled at the rough movement.

“Crap um, I haven’t introduced myself have I? My name is Isabel and this is Farlan. Your name is Eren right? Your bird kept on saying it over and over while you were unconscious...”

Eren nodded slightly and leaned his weight on the two, having trouble listening while also trying to walk. And right after he just learned how. “Yeah I’m Eren. Jeager,” he muttered. “And this is Armin. He’s was jus' worried ‘bout me.”

“What a… human name,” said Isabel and Armin huffed by his ear. “We should talk more when you aren’t delusional, or, you know bleeding.” Eren sighed with exhaustion as they walked off the beach and into the forest.

 ~o0o~

Eren was half conscious throughout the trip, but he tried his best to help the humans drag him away. He didn’t pay attention to most anything except the ground and his footwork, meaning if they wanted to find that part of the beach again, it was going to be a bit hard. Well maybe for Eren. For Armin it might be easier since he could fly.

He watched as the ground melded from sand to dirt and then to stone as they got onto a cobble path. Soon enough Isabel was exclaiming “We’re home!” to the two males and Eren was walking up some wood steps. Eren remembered that humans were more indulgent with wood as a building material, which was strange to Eren because mermaids were more fond of stone.

He could deal though, it wasn’t like wood was a bad choice. He was just used to the dark water and cold surroundings. Now everything was light and fresh and open. Eren could get used to this new freedom.

“You set him on the couch, I’ll get the first aid kit,” said Isabel and then Eren had to lean his weight on Farlan as one of his crutches slipped out from under him.

“I don’t think _you know who_ will be all that happy about a stranger dirtying up the house with dirty feet and sandy clothes,” said Farlan but Eren barely registered the words as he was placed on a soft but also plush seat. A plush object was placed under his head and Eren felt like he could die happy right there, on top of that newfound relaxing material.

Everything here was new to Eren. Even delusional, Eren had the odd feeling of new things all around him. He had never sat on a couch or chair before, or walked on wood that was polished into smooth, shiny planks. Had never smelt anything other than salt and sea, like the dust and smokey scent that surrounded his senses.

Armin had abandoned his shoulder to perch on the rim of the couch. “I don’t think he’d appreciate a bird in here either,” Farlan added as Isabel came back into his view with a white box in her hands.

“Mr. Grumpy pants will just have to deal, we’ll just clean it up before he gets here. And besides, look at this little thing!” Isabel reached over Eren to pet Armin’s head. “He’s so sweet! I bet he’s trained, it’ll be fine,” she finished with a wave of her hand and he heard Armin cluck, probably with wariness from never having been touched by a human before.

“Alright let’s take this off,” Isabel said and Eren felt her untie whatever she had used to patch his head, a sash, he saw, when she pulled it away. Isabel hissed when she saw the wound. “See this is why I wanted him to come home with us. He’s going to need stitches.” She opened the white box and Eren raised a hand to touch his head but Farlan brushed it away.

“No touch, let the doctor work her magic,” he said and Isabel brought out some cloths, cotton balls, water and alcohol.

She snorted at his command. “Does that mean you’re my nurse?” she asked and poured a little water on a cloth, beginning to clean the blood off his face.

“Technically yes but that doesn’t mean I like it,” he said, still holding Eren’s hands down so he wouldn’t try to touch. “And you’re cleaning the floors after this,” he continued. “This is all your fault.”

Isabel disposed of the soiled cloths and put some alcohol on a cotton ball. “Nuh uh, no way, I’m making him some food after this. You clean, I cook, that’s how this relationship works,” Isabel replied. “Hold still best you can, this is gonna sting.” Eren had but a moment to register her words before she started cleaning the wound and his head started burning. Eren whined and Armin trilled in reassurance. “Sorry,” Isabel said with a grimace. “There, all clean.” She poured something else on another cotton ball and dabbed his wound again. “That’ll numb it for the stitches,” she said and went back to the box, pulling out a needle and thread while Eren slowly felt the area around his wound go numb.

“Couldn’t you have done that for the cleaning?” Farlan asked and Isabel scoffed at him, trying to slide the thin thread through the needle hole.

“If I put the numbing on before cleaning it I would have been cleaning the numbing solution and not the grime underneath,” she explained. Farlan groaned lightly.

“Okay! I get it! You’re an _amazing_ doctor while I’m a middle class worker. _We get it._ ” Isabel laughed while she dipped the needle in the small vial of alcohol.

“Okay Eren, hold very still, this will be over soon,” Isabel said and Eren shut his eyes, focusing on the heavenly material he was laying on. These humans were very nice. They apologized for scaring him and helped him when he was hurt. He felt the pinch Isabel was talking about and held very still as she stitched his wound. When she was finished, she wiped away the left over blood and wrapped his head in a clean white bandage.

“There all done!” she exclaimed and Farlan released Eren’s twitching hands so he could feel his head. He traced his fingers over the bumps of thread under the fabric from his stitches. “Now I’m going to go start dinner, Farlan can go clean his precious floors and Eren,” Isabel said pointing at him and he looked at her with drooping eyes. “Take a nap maybe? You look exhausted.” She packed up the medical kit and skipped out of the room. Farlan sighed and stood up, looking down at Eren with twisted lips.

“She’s right. You should take a bit of a nap and we’ll wake you for food. Watch over him for a bit, yeah?” He said to Armin, who chirped twice in response, before walking out of the room the same way Isabel went. Armin and Eren were left alone.

Eren waited a few moments before speaking. “Sorry for scarin' ya Armin…” he mumbled. Armin leaned forward on the couch.

“I was really worried Eren,” he said quietly in his normal tone. “I thought we were done for but they really see you as a human, so I think everything will be okay.” His eyelids felt so heavy. He tried to keep them up but they fell closed as a thought occurred to him.

“What if they as' where I came from or who ‘m with?” he asked and Armin was silent for a while.

Before sleep could take him he heard Armin’s feathers flutter and felt him curl up in the crevice between his body and the couch.

“I’ll think of something,” he muttered. Then Eren fell into a dreamless sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is kinda short :( BUT I HOPE YOU ENJOY MY STORY ANYWAY  
> Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated! (^//3//^) ~ chuu


	4. Captain Comes Marching Home

Levi trudged over the cobbles that lead to Isabel and Farlan’s house and grimaced at the mud that stained his boots. It had been an extremely shitty day for him and it was no surprise that it left him in an extremely shitty mood.

First, there was visiting the market, where everyone got in pairs and split up. Somehow he got stuck with _Hanji_ who rambled continuously about all the booths they visited and talked to almost every clerk who ran them. That all lasted a few hours until the sky started darkening. Hours of touching things other people had touched and walking around in crowds of sweaty, dirty people? Levi was less than pleased.

On the bright side, Levi was able to get a new pair of pistols and get his swords sharpened. Hanji found interest in new books and research supplies and scheduled it all to be delivered to the ship the next morning. Levi let her do as she wished, he didn’t know much about science but he knew Hanji was enamored with it. Finding or documenting new species of plants or animals was Hanji’s hobby on his ship as they sailed most everywhere. Making discoveries kept her out of his quarters for a month at most, a week at least, and he was happy to give her something that would get her out of his hair.

When they finished there and all found each other, dusk had set in and they all decided to go out to eat. Unfortunately for the Captain, they ran into more of the crew and dinner turned into an all-out celebration where everyone got drunk and Levi had to escort Petra and Hanji to their Inn and get them into their rooms without injury. Hanji fell asleep as soon as she got to her bed but Petra needed a bit more pestering, being very persistent on wanting Levi to have fun. Levi was quick to reassure her that he did indeed have fun that night, even though he really didn’t, but he still ended up carrying her to bed. Levi knew that Petra had only innocent intentions, and was grateful that she looked out for his happiness, but he would much prefer her to worry about his mood. If he ever felt anything other than bored it was usually for the worse.

Gunther said he could handle getting Erd and Aurou to bed and he half believed him. Erd was an obedient drunk and wouldn’t cause much trouble, but Aurou was a whole other story. The man swallowed practically gallons trying to muster some kind of masculinity to flirt with the wenches of the restaurant. He failed miserably and Levi was sure he’d be feeling all of those drinks full force in the morning.

And now it was about long past midnight and Levi was finally making his way home, sweaty, grimy, disgusted, and kind of pissed off at everything.

He tramped up the wood steps of the porch and pulled out his key to unlock the door. The two knew he would be coming home terribly late, but that didn’t mean they could just leave the doors unlocked for him. He pushed the door open and slid out of his muddy boots before stepping inside, leaving them on the porch.

 _I’m going to need to wash those later,_ he thought bitterly and sliding off his cloak next and hanging it up on the coat stand before trudging into the living room. He was set to flop on the couch and fall dead asleep there, but a small hand on his shoulder stopped him from his sweet release.

“Levi no!” Isabel said and he turned to her with a bitter glare. _Of course she’d stay awake until I got back,_ he thought.

“What is it?” he asked with an exhausted sigh and she pointed at the couch. It was dark in the room so Levi hadn’t seen anything at first, but now that his eyes had adjusted he realized that the whole couch was occupied at the moment. Stretched over the couch was the figure of a person, dark hair peeking out from a blanket draped over them as they slept. Levi spotted a white stripe in his hair and groaned lowly.

“Isabel, what did you do?” he asked and she whined at him a little before pulling him out of the living room and into the kitchen. Levi sat at the table, rubbing his head while Isabel got him a glass of water.

“Okay, so Farlan and I decided to spend the first day of his vacation at the beach,” she started, giving him his water to drink while she explained. “We were playing, relaxing, swimming, the usual, and we were racing down the beach when I saw this kid through the trees. It looked like he was kind of disoriented or something ‘cause he was stumbling around in circles so I decided to go talk to him, but when I did I scared the bejesus out of him and he hit his head on a rock! He cut his head open and I stopped the bleeding with my sash but I knew that wouldn’t be enough. When he woke up we brought him and his bird here, stitched him up, fed him some soup and he was out. And so we’ve got a kid on our couch now.” She finished and Levi gave her a look of disapproval.

“You couldn’t have looked around for anyone else who was with him?” he asked bitterly.

“Levi, it was just us on that part of the beach! There was _no one_ else around for me to dump him on or talk to. And besides it was _my_ fault, it’s only proper that I take care of him,” she retaliated. _When did she decide to start being proper?_

“And what did you say about a bird?” he asked and Isabel looked away nervously.

“Well ya see he has a parrot with him…” she said and Levi pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Isabel-“ he started but she cut him off.

“It’s seems to be a trained bird though Levi! And it’s a really pretty bird, very sweet and wouldn’t leave Eren’s side the whole time. Even now he’s snuggled on the couch with him while he sleeps!” she explained quickly and Levi waved at her with a sigh.

“If it shits anywhere you’re cleaning it up,” he said, too tired to argue against it's staying. Isabel’s face brightened at his weak agreement. “And when you do, whatever you clean will fucking _sparkle._ " She nodded happily. “Eren?” he asked shortly and Isabel gestured towards the door.

“That’s his name. And the bird’s name is Armin,” she added but Levi was already out of his chair.

“I don’t care Isabel,” he said with an exhausted sigh. “It’s been a shitty day for me so I’m going to go take a shower and go to bed.” And with that he left the kitchen, but not before Isabel could jab at him one more time.

“Maybe you should’a just come with us to the _beach_ ,” she whisper shouted after him.

“Tch.” Levi ignored her and started down the hallway, only to stop, turn around and head to the living room. He peeked around the corner to see the kid in his same position and also that yes, there was indeed a parrot perched on the couch.

And it was watching him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this was short but at least I'm sticking to the scheduel!  
> Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated! (0//v//0) ~ heh


	5. Their Story (Their Excuse)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks a ton for 400 hits and 47 kudos! I don't know what amount is good or bad really but I'm going to assume about 400 people have looked or re-looked at my fanfic and that's GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME!  
> 

“Eren…” Armin whispered, unaffectively luring Eren out of his dead sleep. He tried a little louder, along with a jump on his shoulder. “Eren wake up.”

“Another hour…” Eren groaned, rolling onto his other side and almost flipping Arming off the couch. He caught himself and started nibbling on his nose and cheeks, and when he tried to shove his face in his pillow he started nibbling on his ear. “Alright!” the boy snapped and sat up quickly, realizing his mistake when blood started rushing to his head and he put his head in his hands.

“Eren, we have to talk.” Armin said as he tried to push himself off his back from where he landed on Eren's legs. 

“About what?” Eren mumbled, sleepily rubbing all over his face.

“About everything! Do you even remember what happened?” Eren started shuffling through his memory.

“We were at the beach…" he recalled. "I was walking around… I hurt my head…” Eren touched the bandaged wound. “It’s blurry after that…”

“These humans took you in,” Armin explained. “Their names are Isabel and Farlan. You really can’t remember?” Eren's gaze moved around the room and he realized they weren’t in the cold, dark cave he was used to greeting when he opened his eyes.

He was sitting on a plush red couch with gold painted wood and had a dark green blanket hanging off his crossed legs and spilling onto the floor. Behind the couch was a rectangular window beside a door that led outside. To his right there were two dark wood bookshelves that reached the ceiling, filled with trinkets and books, and to his left there was a large red brick fireplace, full with two chairs, a coffee table and small, faded red rug underneath. The floors were a light orange-brown colored wood and when Eren hung his foot over the couch to touch it he found it smooth and glossy. The walls were velvety and colored red as well, decorated with small darker red swirls and flower patterns. The room was tinted light blue from the soft glow coming in through the window, making the passionate reds dull and silvery. Eren found the whole room to be extravagant nonetheless and gawked around the room in awe.

“That’s right… I remember,” Eren said, still looking around the room. “They brought me here and stitched the cut. It’s all black after that though.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised, you lost a lot of blood. After they finished dealing with your wound, Isabel made you some soup and you passed out.” Eren smiled at the way Armin climbed up to his perch on the couch, using his claws and beak in the lush cushion. “But there’s something else that happened you didn’t see…”

His smile faded and he frowned in concern. “What happened?” Armin pointed a wing at the hallway and leaned forward.

“Another human showed up,” he said in a hushed voice. “and he seems a little more aggressive than the other two.”

“How so?” Eren asked nervously. Were they in trouble? Was something going to happen to them?

“I heard Isabel say his name, _Levi._ He was a little more aggressive in his _tone_ rather than body language, and he almost laid down on you! He was so close I could smell him! It was something that humans drink a lot, though I don't know what they call it..." Eren shifted, fidgeting with his key.

"Was he... Did he look dangerous?" The boy asked.

"The last I saw of him was when he was heading off to bed, but came back to look at us. We made eye contact and it was like his stare could _kill._ He’s scary Eren…” Even though he had his own fears, Eren picked up his friend lightly and placed him in his lap, petting his feathers softly.

“I’m sure it was because it was dark, it was dark right?” Armin nodded his little head. “I’ll bet he’s less scary in the light Armin, don’t worry.” Eren was trying to comfort Armin, but also himself. He looked around the room again and scrunched up his shoulders. “Armin, how am I supposed to go on here? I don’t know how humans work or what they do or anything like that...“

“I learned a lot about humans while I was around, don’t worry I’ll tell you a bit of the basics.”

Eren blinked at him disbelievingly. “How?” Eren asked. “You were gone for but half a day!”

“Yes but there were so many of them out today, all doing so many different things! It was so interesting, especially watching them from up above in the trees, or the sky. Flying was hard to do, I haven't had any practice, but once I got the hang of it... Gosh it's beautiful up there Eren...”

Eren smiled at his friend and placed him down before standing up on wobbly legs. “Well first let’s look around, explore a little and such,” he said, his head throbbing and knees quivering, but he managed to stumble over to the bookshelves and balance himself. He examined the books and plucked a blue one out of its place, reading the title.

“Armin! I think these are the humans tomes!” Eren whispered excitedly and Armin cocked his head.

“Really? What did you find?” he asked. Eren flipped through the pages.

“It’s about the ocean,” he answered, skimming over the pages. “But all of this seems like basic knowledge…”

“You can’t expect them to know much Eren.” Eren picked Armin up and placed him on his shoulder so he could look over the titles on the bindings. “They _are_ land creatures. I learned in the tomes that they can’t withstand the pressure in the deeper ocean and don’t have gills like us.”

“How terrible…” Eren answered. Although the ocean was bland, cold and dark at times, it was also vast and beautiful in the right places. ANd it was still _home._ Eren pitied those who couldn’t see the ocean to its fullest, but he also pitied himself for knowing next to nothing about land.

Armin skimmed over the titles with his head tilted all the way to one side to be able to read better. He pointed a wing at one of the articles. “There! The one that says ‘geology.’ _Geo_ meaning Earth and _ology_ meaning knowledge," he explained. "It's surprising they use Latin roots in their texts as well...” Eren took the book off the wall. The brunette remembered how him and his friend would go to the tomes and read about anything and everything to avoid going out and seeing the pod. Armin having all this knowledge about things Eren couldn’t even fathom had its perks, but it seemed at such a foolish expense.

They sat back down on the couch and opened the text, beginning to read about the things land had to offer.

 ~o0o~

They weren’t disappointed. The first few pages were of maps of different lands, their names, the _climates,_ the weather, more about physical attributes than anything. The rest of the book ranged on different topics of land like volcanoes and geysers, lava and magma, and forests and deserts.

Armin interrupted their reading to talk to Eren about normal human functions. He told him about how they eat, dress, clean, barter, and talk to one another and Eren was wide eyed at the end of it. They also went over what Eren’s story was. To Eren it was more like his “excuses”. He didn’t want to lie to the humans, but he couldn’t let them know what he was. There was no room for error in this situation.

When they were finished, Eren yawned with arms outstretched and back arching. 

“Armin, would it be a _crime_ to go wake up Isabel at this hour?” Eren asked, playing around with a word Armin had taught him regarding  _law._ He got up, uncaring of Armin's answer even as he waved his wings around.

“What are you talking about? No way! I want the least amount of contact with them as possible, Eren!” Armin whisper shouted and Eren rolled his eyes at him.

“Armin, I’m not going to go tear their throats out. I’m going to make some human _friends_ ,” he said and grabbed Armin, carefully putting him on his shoulder.

The blue feathered bird huffed as he thought for a moment. “I guess... there’s nothing wrong with having a few human acquaintances. _Not_ friends though.” Eren groaned in displeasure at the last part and Armin shagged him over the head in reprimand. "We need to be ready to leave at any moment, you overexcited fool." The boy decided to ignore his worry-wart of a friend and peeked around out of the living room archway. There was a hallway, three doors and one small open archway that the brunette could barely see into at his angle.

Eren started to head towards the archway but Armin stopped him with a few low trills. “No, Isabel didn’t go this way to her room," he said. "She went in there.” Eren was a little disturbed at how Armin twisted his head all the way around, but nonetheless stalked towards the white sliding doors back down the hallway that Armin had pointed to with his beak. Eren glanced at Armin before sliding the wood doors aside.

The new room had walls with the same patterns and decor only it was all in a dark green hue. On the wall directly across from the door there was a window above a large tilted desk accompanied by a simple wood chair. On either side of the desk there were two tall bookshelves, more simple than the ones in the living room what with having no special carvings and definitely not as glossy, and filled with leaning books, opened and tied scrolls, loose paper and small tools and trinkets. Lined up against the right wall of the room were shoulder height tall cabinets, reaching from the far wall to the door with papers leaking and spilling out onto the floor. Eren picked his way around them as he made his way over to the staircase taking up the whole left side of the wall.

Eren took a testing step and found the first board silent, the rest also holding his weight easily as he ascended into the next room.

The staircase led to a large, high ceiling room, with sky blue walls and the same light brown flooring covered mostly by a large, lavender oval carpet. The walls went up about two meters before slanting and touching together a few meters higher, making it feel sheltered and secure. Higher up on the left wall was a round, cross framed window that shone blue light into the coldly colored room, a pulley system reaching down the wall to a metal latch that was intended to open it when needed. Along the lower left wall was a couch, much like the one Eren had woke up on, only the cushions were a light purple color with dark wood framing, and on the right wall was a white door with a dark metal handle and a dark wood dresser to it's right. On the dresser there were two picture frames, a small decorated chest, and a few pieces of discarded clothing.

At the end of the attic was a large canopy bed, the thick, ocean blue curtains let go to protect the sleeping humans inside undeterred by the morning light. Eren tip toed across the soft carpet to the dark mahogany bed and took deep, calming breathes, trying to quell the adrenaline that ran through his body. He slipped Armin into the curtain on Farlan’s side of the bed and tip toed over to Isabel’s side before crawling under the curtain as well.

Isabel was sprawled out along most of the bed with one leg and arm sticking out of the blankets, Farlan entangling himself with the her other limbs that were still in the bed.

Eren guessed that Armin decided to help wake them as he waddled his way over to Farlan and started nibbling on his hair. Eren stared at Isabel’s hand and foot and made a spur of the moment decision to compare his to the human's. He sat down beside the bed and placed the pad of Isabel’s foot against his to compare size. His foot was slightly bigger than hers but just as soft and nimble. The only real difference was the size and color as Eren had a bit of a tanner body.

Eren did the same with his hand and came up with the same results. He started running his fingers over her foot, twisting it this way and that, just observing since he had never seen feet before this journey, and when he ran a hand over the dip in her foot he furrowed his brows as her foot twitched. He did it once more and it twitched again as he added his nails. Isabel snorted in her sleep and Eren snorted into his hand.

He started continuously running his fingers lightly into the dip in her foot and she jerked a little, beginning to try and pull her foot away lightly but Eren held it in place, mercilessly tickling her foot as she started giggling herself awake. He heard Farlan moan long and quiet and glanced over the bed to see Armin jumping up and down his lump of a body. He laughed at the sight and continued his assault on Isabel's foot, the human slowly waking up and laughing more and more, trying to pull her leg away from him harder but his grip was firm.

Soon enough she was bolting up in bed to glower at him, though giggling all the while, until he let her foot go to smile innocently up at her. Farlan slowly sat up like a zombie coming to life and Armin fell off his chest with a quiet thud before wobbling over to Eren’s side of the bed and look at them both.

“Good morning!” Eren cheered, leaning his elbows on the bed to smile brightly at them. Armin climbed up his shirt, which was hanging off one of his shoulders, with claws and beak and onto his head to stare at them as well.

“G’morning…” Farlan mumbled, rubbing his eyes while Isabel smiled back at him, though a bit ruefully as she clutched her foot and scratched at it to get the sensitive feeling out.

“Good morning Eren,” she said a bit grudgingly but all Eren did was try to hold back his smile a bit. “Do you know what time it is?” Eren shook his head with owlish eyes. Eren guessed his concept of time wasn’t the same as the humans’ as he didn’t rely on the sun to tell when to wake up and when to sleep in the ocean. Isabel pulled back the dark curtain a bit and peeked up at the one window, finding the once dim blue filtering light a now bright blue. She sighed and patted Farlan’s leg. “We slept in,” she told him and Farlan leaned his head on her shoulder.

“Who cares” he grumbled. “That’s what you're supposed to do when you're on vacation.” Isabel scoffed and pushed him off her shoulder to pull back the curtains and straighten the covers as she got out of bed. Farlan flopped back on the bed, face first, like a sack of potatoes and Eren stood with Armin still on his head.

Isabel yawned again while stretching as she walked around the bed towards the dresser. Opening a drawer and rummaging through it she asked, “How long have you been awake, Eren?” The brunette glanced up at Armin who looked down at him.

“For, I don’t know… two hours maybe?” he estimated and Isabel laughed.

“Well you did fall asleep early yesterday.” She grabbed some clothes and turned to him, giving him a worried look. “Does the cut hurt at all?” she asked and Eren scratched around his bandage as he remembered the wound.

“Not really. I just have a headache,” he replied. His stomach growled just then and he clutched it, blushing a little. “And I’m a little hungry…” Isabel clapped her hands together with the bundle of clothes in the crook of her elbow.

“Don’t you worry! Cooking is one of the few talents I have and I’d love to flaunt it off for you!” she exclaimed, then she pointed a finger at Farlan who was dozing off on the bed. “Farlan, you get your lazy ass up and find something for Eren to wear while I change in the bathroom!” With that she disappeared behind the white door and Farlan groaned.

He sat himself up and studied Eren from head to toe. “I think I have something…” he said, then pushed himself out of bed and walked over to the dresser groggily. Farlan didn’t seem like much of a morning person. “But you need a shower. Like seriously. Levi won’t like you all dirty and with that bed head.” Eren jerked at the name and patted his hair. Bed head?

Armin slid off his head and onto his shoulder as Farlan rummaged through the dresser like Isabel had. _Do they share clothes?_ he thought. _I don’t normally wear clothes, it must be a human thing._

Farlan handed him some clothes just as Isabel left the bathroom. She was wearing a complimenting orange shirt stuffed into well fitted black pants with a thin leather belt to hold them up. 

“Alright I’m gonna go start breakfast and wake up Levi. Don’t do anything illegal in here,” she teased before strolling past the two males, across the large room and down the glossy wood stairs. Farlan pushed Eren into the bathroom.

“I took a shower last night so you take one and I’ll change out here,” he said. “Either that or continue sleeping… meh.” Farlan was obviously still sleepy as he rubbed his eyes and went back to the dresser to grab his own clothes. Eren put Armin on his finger and placed him on the bed.

“I’ll do this by myself,” he whispered so only Armin could hear. “Wait here.” He heard Armin coo in protest but closed the door so Farlan wouldn’t think he was just talking to a bird. He looked in the mirror in the bathroom and realized how filthy he looked.

He looked like he was in drags, the baggy red shirt torn and unfitting. The sash was barely holding around his waist and the pants stopped just above his ankles. His usually slicked back hair was fluffy and untamed and his face was streaked in a few places with dirt. He definitely needed a good cleaning.

 ~o0o~

He stepped out of the water and twisted the knob to stop the water flow, making the ‘shower’ fast so he could eat and get back to Armin quickly. He picked up a towel and started drying his body and rubbing his hair.

He remembered what Armin had taught him about putting on clothes and realized the new shirt wasn’t much different. As he slipped it over his head he saw that the sleeves went a bit past his hands and the collar was wide on the shoulders, too big, but he didn’t mind.

Eren recognized the pants but not the new piece of clothing that was in the pile. He lifted it up, inspecting it and tried to use logic, like Armin had told him, to reason how to put it on. It was black and looked like the pants, only they were shorter and thinner. Eren hadn’t seen Farlan or Isabel wear anything like this. _Maybe it was a mistake?_ he thought. _Farlan did seem really tired._ But what if it wasn’t?

Eren shrugged and put them on. They were loosed fitting and thin but left lots of freedom for his legs so he decided to leave them on as they were and skipped on the pants. When he looked in the mirror he found the shirt's creamy white color matched well with the smaller pants and towel dried his hair one more time before folding the towel again and taking his old clothes out of the bathroom.

Armin had disappeared along with Farlan and Eren was left alone to wonder what to do with himself. He saw a new bandage on the dresser and smiled, placing his old clothes and bandage on the dresser and wrapping the new bandage around his head. As he did so he inspected the two picture frames on the dresser. One frame held a yellowing piece of paper with an insignia stamp and lots of writings on it. The other was a painted picture of both Farlan and Isabel, their faces a bit meshed due to the small size, but otherwise beautifully painted and shaded and Eren stared at it for a while in awe at the craftsmanship humans were capable of doing.

It was when he smelled something mouthwatering waft up into the room that he broke away from the picture and went downstairs. The smell followed down the hallway and into the open archway Eren had wanted to explore before. He tucked his key under his shirt and into a studied the new room. It was bright, with yellow walls and light brown wood countertops. At the stove was Isabel, with Armin on her shoulder, and Farlan drinking something out of a white mug while reading at the wood dining table located right in front of the doorway.

“What’s that smell?” Eren asked hungrily and Farlan hummed.

“Breakfast." He looked up from his paper to Eren and his brows furrowed. “Oh... looks like I accidentally gave you Isabel's shirt... and you're just in your underwear... and what’s up with your hair?” Eren raised a hand to his hair, which was apparently still fluffy, and tried patting it down but it just fluffed up again. Isabel laughed.

“Don’t worry about it. I think it looks cute!” she exclaimed, pushing some food around in a pan. Eren pulled out a chair next to Farlan and sat in it while Armin chirped a hello to him. Eren gave him an apologetic look but Armin turned away from him, more interested in Isabel’s cooking than Eren’s apology. Eren's face fell and he rolled his eyes.  _I don’t need to bring you with me everywhere you dumb yet adorable bird!_ he thought.

“Want anything to drink Eren?” Farlan asked, still looking at his paper. Eren tilted his head.

“What are you drinking?” he asked.

“Coffee, a gift from Levi and a gift from God,” he said, raising the mug up in the air before taking another sip. Isabel scoffed.

“Farlan is a lazy _ass_ without his coffee. Could sleep all day,” she said with a wave of her hand. Eren giggled making Farlan scowl into the mug.

“I’ve never had coffee,” Eren said with a shrug and Farlan smirked at him.

“I would hope not, you’re still just a kid,” he said and took another sip. “Actually, how old _are_ you Eren?” he asked. Eren scratched his bandage again as he thought about it.

“I turned eighteen years just this March,” he declared and Farlan spluttered into his coffee, grabbing a nearby napkin and coughing into it. Isabel laughed at him while grabbing some plates out of a cupboard above the stove.

“You’re what?!” Farlan exclaimed and Eren leaned away from him.

“Uh…”

“I thought you were like– I don’t know –fifteen or something!” Eren shook his head before puffing out his chest proudly.

“Nope. I reached maturity a while ago.”

“I wouldn’t believe it if that childish attitude is anything to go by.” Eren froze as a new voice entered the conversation, slowly turning towards the entrance of the kitchen to be met with yet _another_ human.

This human was male, short and had a slim frame though his neck was muscled and jaw sharp with age and strength. He was wearing a white button up shirt, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, under a black vest held together by two buttons and black pants to match. He had jet black hair in an undercut, a slim nose and broad cheekbones, but the main attraction were his sharp silver eyes that created a guarded air around his figure. He stood in the doorway with a pair of clean brown boots under one arm and the other rested on his hip, staring Eren down with no emotion in his eyes.

Eren stared at the newcomer, his breath taken. He was very attractive and intimidating, and the longer they stared at each other the more enamored Eren became with his fair skin and firm build. _He looks strong... determined... dangerous... but also beautiful._  He was definitely afraid, but the fear was all but buried by intrigue at that moment. Eren had never met such a handsome human before, no offense to Farlan, but it wasn’t like he had ever met enough humans to judge. All Eren could do was tilt his head and stare owlishly at him, unable to even blink.

“Oh shut it Levi,” said Isabel who started placing full plates on the table. She reached into a different cupboard and pulled out a bird stand for Armin to perch on, placing it on the counter closest to Eren. Armin chirped a thank you to her and flew to the new perch, joining Eren in staring at Levi. “Come to the table and eat your damn food. Eren I’ll make you some hot chocolate if you want?”

Eren had been staring at Levi the whole time she had been talking but now he turned his wide eyes to her. “Hot chocolate?” he asked, dazedly, and Isabel started to fill a kettle with water and place it on the hot stove.

“Well I’m not surprised you wouldn’t know what it is, cocoa beans are hard to come by these days." She started grinding beans and Eren looked down at his food. It smelled delicious and Eren was starving but he had to remember what Armin had taught him about eating properly. He picked up a fork, trying to place it properly in his hand, but almost dropped it at the sudden screech of wood on wood. Eren stumbled with the fork a bit but once he caught it he looked up to see Levi settling himself in the chair across from him.

“Don't tell me to shut it you brat. He's in his goddamn underwear, Isabel,” he said and the redhead rolled her eyes at the counter. "And make me some damn tea as well." Levi crossed his legs with one ankle on one knee and slung his arm over his chair.

“Sure,” Isabel answered, then turned back to Eren with an apologetic look. “Sorry, forgot to say. Eren this is Levi, my big bro!” she introduced and Levi grunted in indifference. “And Levi this is Eren and you already know about all that,” Isabel explained before getting back to her task.

Eren stared at Levi warily, not knowing what to say or do, but Levi seemed uninterested in him as he stared out of the window above the stove. He decided to direct his attention back to his food. When he regained his grip on the fork he poked at a sausage and picked it up before sticking it in his mouth.

He felt his cheeks go warm when he started chewing and the flavor hit his tongue. He couldn't help the giggles that spilled from his throat at the brand new flavors and everyone turned their attention to him again.

“What are you giggling about?” Levi asked in a snappy tone. Isabel shot him a glare but Eren just swallowed and shrugged his shoulders up to his ears as he smiled at them all.

“This is the best thing I’ve ever tasted!” he exclaimed and Farlan scoffed.

“No need to lie to her kid,” he muttered, but Isabel hit him over the head with her spatula.

“Oh shut up Farlan! It’s about time someone stopped bagging on my _amazing_ skills and complimented me for once!” she said but Eren was barely paying attention, scarfing down half the plate and Isabel rubbed her neck. “I guess I’ll have to make more?”

Eren swallowed and nodded eagerly at her. He noticed Levi glaring at him and furrowed his brows, but his attention spun to Armin when he flew up onto the table and picked up a napkin in his beak. Eren blushed a little at the realization of tidbits on his face and took the napkin with a small “sorry” before wiping his mouth. When he looked back up Levi’s eyes were widened a little and Farlan was outright gaping at him.

“How smart is your bird? Where did you get him? I want one!” Farlan exclaimed and Eren shared a nervous glance with his feathered friend.

“I uh… I’ve always had Armin,” he stated tensely. “He’s always been smart too. He takes care of me more than I take care of him.” it wasn't even a lie. He pet Armin’s head and Armin leaned into the touch. “He’s my best friend.”

“Aw! So cute!” Isabel said. She looked over at Levi and saw his disgruntled look before asking another question. “If he’s smart does that mean he’s trained?” she asked, taking Farlan’s plate to clean and Eren’s plate to refill.

Eren smirked at Armin and raised an eyebrow and Armin knew _exactly_ what he was hinting at. He squawked loudly and turned away, flying back to his little perch and refusing to look at them. Eren sighed.

“Well he doesn’t do tricks...” Farlan chuckled at the display. “But he is well behaved enough.” The brunette felt something hit the side of his head and sighed, glaring at the parrot who sat next to an open bag of poppy seeds looking at him innocently. Isabel placed another plate of food in front of him.

While Eren was busy eating Isabel opened a cabinet and pushed some things around before pulling out a bag of strawberries. As she washed them and cut the tops off Armin watched longingly, he may be a bird but that doesn’t mean he can’t be hungry. Isabel eyed him knowingly and put the strawberries on a plate and slid it over towards him. Armin’s little feather ears seemed to wiggle as he pranced forward and stole a strawberry in his beak. Isabel expected him to back off into some corner to himself but he instead rolled over on his back and clutched the strawberry in his claws, his wings holding him from rolling over as he pecked at the strawberry. Isabel laughed and boldly pet his wing. Armin let her and continued eating, unaware of the sharp stare Levi was giving him.

Once Eren was done with his second plate, Isabel gave him his hot chocolate and sat at the table.

“So Eren,” Isabel started. “What were you doing on the beach yesterday?” she asked and Eren felt a spike of fear shoot down his spine. Armin perked his head up, ignoring the strawberry for the moment.

Eren took a deep breath to calm himself. _It’s okay, me and Armin went over this,_ he thought. “Oh well we-... _I_ was mourning my parents,” he said hesitantly, looking down into his hot chocolate.

“Oh… I’m so sorry,” she said and Eren shrugged. _Maybe not all of this had to be a lie…_ he thought.

“It’s alright, it happened a long time ago,” he said still not looking up to see their faces. He traced the outline of his gold key with his finger. “I honestly don’t know what happened. One day they went out to get some food as usual, but that time they never came back. It’s just been me and Armin for the past five years,” he finished with a sad smile and Isabel put her hand on his.

“Where do you two live?” she asked and Eren hesitated.

“Well I’ve lived in- er _on_ the sea almost my whole life,” he said finally looking up. Isabel had her brows furrowed and was chewing on her lip while Farlan was eating one of the strawberries and leaning forward intently. Levi had the same bored expression and Eren tried to feel courage instead of unease from his cool posture. “It was when we went on land for more supplies that they disappeared. I was young at the time so I didn’t know what to do other than take some things and just leave. Armin’s been keeping me alive really, keeping me out of trouble.” Now that was all a lie, but that was what Armin told him to say. To keep him out of trouble.

Isabel furrowed her brows further. “So… you don’t really live anywhere?” she asked and Eren shrugged.

“Yeah not really. We travel from place to place and are really good fishers so wherever there’s sea there’s safety.” He thought for a moment before speaking again. “The ocean is my home...”

Isabel squeezed Eren’s hand before looking back at Levi and Farlan. “Farlaaan!” she whined and Farlan groaned.

“I’ll do whatever you want, it’s up to him,” he said pointing at Levi. Eren looked between them with a confused expression.

“Great then you won’t mind taking Eren upstairs to get some better fitting clothes?” she asked with a large smile.

“Why?” he asked.

“Because we’re going to go shopping later and no matter how cute he looks in my shirt, it's too big on him,” she answered, pointing at the shirt that was slipping off of one of Eren’s shoulders. Farlan ducked his head, looking into his coffee cup before downing what was left. He sighed and put the coffee down before standing up.

“Alright Eren let’s go,” he said and Eren looked up at him, confused.

“Eh?”

“These two have to talk and we’re gonna go get you some better fitting clothes.” He started walking out of the kitchen and down the hallway.

“Oh- okay!” Eren said quickly and looked between his hot chocolate and the door before downing the rest of his drink as well and standing up. He held his head for a second and hurried out of the kitchen to follow Farlan. “Wait for me!”

Armin turned back to his strawberry. _All is well, we pulled it off!_ He thought and continued nibbling on the fruit. But about a minute after Eren had left the room, Isabel started talking.

“ _Please_ Levi!”

“No way in hell.”

“Oh come on!” she said and Levi scoffed at her, getting up to refill his teacup. “He doesn’t have a home, his parents are gone, he probably doesn’t even know what we just fed him!” She exclaimed and Armin agreed with her, they really didn’t.

“It’s a scam Isabel. He’s working his way into your heart so you’ll trust him and then the next thing you know all your shit has been stolen and your house might even be in ashes.” Levi leaned on the counter and blew on his tea as Isabel stood from the table.

“Would a scam artist ram their head into a rock and get stitches just for a robbery?” 

“A little head wound is less than your possessions in the eyes of a criminal,” he said and Armin stood up with one claw on the half eaten strawberry. He was starting to get mad. _Eren isn’t what you think!_ He internally cried. He didn’t want to intrude on the conversation but also didn’t want this to end badly.

“You would know wouldn’t you,” she said and he saw Levi’s jaw clench. “You just can’t accept that someone might actually be nice and need help so you label him as a scam. Probably because you’re still paranoid that your past is still after you!” Levi glared at her and put his tea down.

“I’m not paranoid, Isabel. I’m smart,” he growled out, then paused in thought. “But if you think that he won’t do anything, go ahead,” at that Isabel stopped glaring and exclaimed “yes!” “Just know that I’m going to keep a close eye on him and if he steps out of line more than once or dots start connecting, I’m kicking him out.” He finished and Isabel saluted him.

“Yes sir!” she exclaimed. Armin huffed in a birdlike sigh. Apparently Levi’s approval meant a lot.

“And also you’re cleaning up all his shit. I’m not a maid, you need to clean this place more.”

“Yeah yeah grumpy pants… So.” Isabel went around the table and sat on it, her legs dangling as she leaned forward and raised an eyebrow. “Are you busy today? Because if you’re going to keep an eye on him you should come with us to the market.” Levi had long since relaxed and put back on his emotionless expression, but at this he narrowed his eyes. “ _Aaand_ I also heard that you had a really shitty day yesterday and you know maybe a day out with your adoptive family and homeless guest might cheer ya up?” she asked in a questioning but also suggestive tone and Levi rolled his eyes.

“Fine. Even though I went to the market _just yesterday_ , maybe with you shits it won’t be as damn suffocating.” Isabel laughed at him.

“Yesterday was really busy yeah but probably not today. The weather is a bit hotter so less people,” she explained. Just then Eren came back into the kitchen.

“Does this look better?” he asked and Isabel put her hands on her face as she gasped. Eren was now in a white button up with an open dark green vest over it. He wore the same pants however and his hair was finally tamed. The vest almost matched his eyes with its green color but Eren’s eyes were more bright. Nonetheless he looked great.

“You look really good!” Isabel exclaimed and Armin had to agree. Even though he hadn’t worn clothes he had to say Eren looked good in them. Farlan came in behind Eren and laid a hand on his shoulder, making Eren flinch a little.

“Now that I’ve had my coffee I could make him look decent,” he said and smiled at them. “So, ye or neh on the whole… ya know,” he asked Isabel and she gave him a thumbs up. “Great. Well Eren lets go get you some shoes.”

“Shoes?” he asked in a panicky voice while being dragged off by Farlan and Isabel made to follow them before turning at the door frame.

“Ya comin big bro?” she asked and Levi sighed as she slipped out of sight. He poured out his forgotten tea and washed out the cup before drying his hands and following after them.

Before he left though he turned and looked at Armin, who had finally finished his strawberry which was enough to sustain him for a while at least. They stared at each other, Levi with narrowed eyes and a furrowed brow.

“It’s a good thing you can’t talk,” he said. “Or else I’d wring your little feathered neck.” He paused to look at the bird a little more and Armin twisted his head at him. The human clicked his tongue before stalking off to follow the others. Armin huffed.

_You have no idea._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated! (x//w//x) ~ xXx


	6. The Market

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I didn't update last week. I'm going to update every two weeks now because I'm a slow writer :P

Levi wasn’t buying it.

When he had gotten up that morning, thanks to his intoxication and exhaustion, he had completely forgotten about the boy on the couch. He hadn’t remembered much, but when Isabel came to wake him up, even though she knew he was already up, it all started coming back to him.

It took him a while to get his boots clean enough to shine out on the porch, but when he finished and went into the kitchen for breakfast, the kid - Ernie was it? - was already there. He had expected him to be intimidated or scared of him when he first walked in, he may be short but he was told frequently he could scare the biggest man when angry, but the boy didn't so much as blink when they locked eyes.

The kid had tan skin, brown hair and long slender legs crossed on the chair he was sitting in. He had a creamy shirt on that he recognized as Isabel's, with the neck hole too wide so his prominent collar bones were on full display. What really held him was the kid’s eyes. They were like a mix of blue and green, switching between the two when he tilted his head at him.

He was stunned for a moment, having never seen anyone’s eyes that color before, but quickly regained his bearings and proceeded with the morning. He focused on not acting suspicious, intending to study the boy and find what his intentions were, if he had any.

His story left him suspicious. A child at that age doesn’t just live by himself for five years, especially around these parts, without committing some kind of disruption to the public. The kid seemed all but harmful though, polite and seemingly good hearted. Levi’s impression was that he’s curious, seemingly under-educated, and really oblivious.

Which was then proven throughout the day.

When they had left, Eren seemed to have trouble walking in the boots Farlan had given him. He also had trouble putting the boots on, Isabel having to help him slip his feet in and tie the laces. This kid really was hopeless. But when his bird arrived and squawked at the three of them to back off, they seemed to talk to each other for a minute and then Eren walked just fine. How smart exactly was this fucking bird? How this kid survived five years alone was a mystery to him, which left him with the conclusion that his story was a complete lie.

He watched Eren the whole way to the market. The kid was so enthralled with his surroundings he didn’t even notice Levi’s staring at him. He kicked sand and pointed at different types of flowers to his bird, his _bird_ , who would coo at him, it _responded_ , and then he would laugh and go to the next everyday plant. Levi would have found this amusing if he wasn’t extremely suspicious of the brat. Isabel elbowed him in the ribs once and gave him a look that basically said to relax and enjoy it, but he just ignored her and went back to watching the kid.

When they reached the market, Levi was wondering if the boy's eyes could get any wider. Booths were on either side of the dirt streets possessing food, clothes, jewelry, art, weapons, books, most everything a person could ever need or want. Although there were less people than the day before, there were still small crowds strolling about leisurely from booth to booth. Women were in decorative dresses, albeit thin, and were waving colorful fans to cool themselves while men were hooking arms with them or were in their own groups, laughing with each other or bartering goods.

Levi glanced at Isabel and sighed through his nose. Isabel had enough money to buy fancy dresses and jewelry, but she never did. She was more in tune with the freedom of shorts with well-fitting shirts and tall boots. Isabel was sometimes mistaken for a boy with longer red hair because of this, but she took no offense, and Farlan loved her all the more for her independent personality.

Eren was staring at the booths and people with large eyes, though Levi couldn't help but notice the boy's lack of excitement and now nervous fidgeting. When Isabel tugged him by the sleeve his small frown turned into a nervous smile and he held Isabel’s hand as they walked through the market. Levi heard Farlan grumble under his breath and when he glanced at him he smirked at his frown. Farlan just rolled his eyes before pushing past him to follow the other two.

Although he was nervous at first, Eren seemed to brighten up the more booths they visited. They visited a shop for clothes and Isabel had him try multiple outfits, along with different boots, belts and undergarments. The girl kept Eren’s shirts and vests in the cool color range so they matched his eyes, a few fiery colors as well just because she couldn't resist. In the end he had at least one pair of white, black, dark blue, and black pants as well as a few shorts in more neutral colors, and a lot of shirts and vests, some colored and others just white or black. As a special gift, Isabel got him a large satchel to carry things in. She wanted to get him a trench coat as well but decided against it because it would ruin his "cute, boyish look.” Levi rolled his eyes at those words but couldn't help but agree. The brat had this kind of innocent look about him and a tail coat was a more professional attire that would make him look like a child trying to be an adult, even though he was.

Eren didn’t know how to react at the bounty of clothes they had gotten him except to thank them many times. Isabel told him not to mention it and he still looked unsure. He seemed to have some resolve after a minute of thinking before they continued on to the next booth.

The next shop held books, papers, pencils, maps, and other such things that Farlan needed for his work as a map maker and scribe. Levi skimmed through the shelves, looking for a few more books for his library, and saw one on human anatomy that he thought Hanji might like. He went to reach for it when his hand bumped into another. Although it was just a simple touch, Levi couldn’t believe the softness of it, but the thought barely lasted a second before his eyes registered Eren snap his hand back and start blushing furiously out of embarrassment and stutter an apology. He was hugging a small stack of books to his chest, his bird disappeared from his shoulder and instead sitting atop another stack of books abit of a ways off, staring down at a thick book that was opened to a random page.

Levi pulled the book out of its place and held it up for Eren to see. “You like human anatomy?” he asked. Eren glanced quickly between him, the book, and Armin.

“U-Uhm w-well,” he stuttered. “I-I just pick up whatever seems interesting.” Levi stepped closer to him, skimming through the pages.

“And this is interesting to you?” he asked, getting in his personal space and the kid took a half step back. He seemed to finally be scared of him.

“W-well… humans and animals too.” The boy pulled another book out of his stack and showed it to him with a nervous smile. It was about animals and zoology. “I’m interested in land and all that’s on it. I’ve heard of deserts and forests and mountains... I want to visit them someday, and if I do I should know what’s there,” he explained and smiled at the book with a distant look on his face.

Levi stared at him, his suspicions lowering gradually like a water barrel with a hole in the bottom. He was unsure if a criminal could make that kind of stuff up. He also just completely switched from scared to optimistic, which caught Levi completely off guard. He was snapped out of it when Eren started talking again.

“Um… what do you need a book on human anatomy for?” he asked. Levi clicked his tongue and held the book out for him.

“I was going to give it to one of my annoying shipmates but if you want it you should have it.” Eren tilted his head confusedly.

“Shipmates?” he asked and Levi was finding it hard to stop staring into this kids eyes. He found the way they switched colors was kind of addicting to watch.

“Yes, I’m the captain of the ship _Wings of Freedom_ ,” he answered. Eren’s eyes widened in admiration.

“You’re a captain?” he asked in a whisper and Levi nodded. Eren stared at him with a look of admiration that he had seen plenty times before. “I’ve never met a captain before,” he mumbled and looked to the side in thought. Levi raised an eyebrow at him and shoved the book at him.

“Are you going to take it or not?” he asked irately and Eren looked between the book and Levi before pushing the book back to the older man.

“No, it’s okay. I’m sure your shipmate would appreciate it more than I would,” he said with a smile. Levi peered at him for a moment before suddenly turning on his heel with a shrug.

“Whatever.” He moved towards some new bookshelves that he comprehended to be about literature, but as he skimmed the shelves he could only pay half paid attention to the books he was picking out, his mind stuck on who the hell he had just talked with. With his suspicions lowered greatly by their little talk, he decided the brunette wasn’t a criminal at least. But Eren had still lied about where he had been for the past five years. If you’ve been alone for that long you wouldn’t have such above and beyond dreams, especially when you were found in dirty clothes with no money and no belongings.

That fact also added to his distrust. Isabel had said that he had nothing on him, just the clothes on his back and the bird on his shoulder. He said he had no home or place to keep his things too, so how did he get such ridiculous goals?

Even if he wasn’t a criminal, he decided, he was at least hiding something. And that was enough of a reason to keep his guard up.

~o0o~

When they got back to the house it was mid-afternoon. Isabel and Eren put all of the new clothes and other shopping in the guest room across from Levi’s, which was where he would be sleeping. Eren was more than happy with his new assortment of items being basically clothes and some books. The trip had cost Isabel quite a lot and Levi questioned her about it.

“Nah, I’ve got enough to last me until my next pay,” she answered with a wave of her hand but Levi could see the slight worry in her eyes. “You, Farlan and Eren should go to the beach while I make dinner. I mean, Eren and Farlan are going anyway, so you go to.” Levi crossed his arms and leaned back on the kitchen counter.

“I guess I’ll go. I’m not swimming though,” he said. “...I’ve deemed him as not a criminal but I’m still suspicious.” Isabel handed him his cup of tea and sat at the table while throwing him an annoyed look.

“Levi, he’s a sweetheart! He and Armin are so cute together and he’s so curious about everything. It must be exciting to see things that we find completely normal as entirely new and miraculous,” she rambled and Levi sipped his tea. Isabel was one of the few people that got his tea exactly how he liked it, even with the few times he visited. “And what’s with the new perspective of him?” she asked. “I saw you two talking while at the supplies shop. Did you… get caught up by his innocence?” She raised and wiggled her eyebrows, making Levi breathe out an annoyed sigh.

“No. Not in _that_ sense anyway,” he answered and Isabel leaned back in her chair, shrugging her shoulders. “He just doesn’t seem like he could even try _acting_ like a crook. Even so I know he’s hiding something, so I’m going to keep watching him.” Isabel sighed.

“Well shoot. I think you two would be cute together,” she said and Levi choked mid swallow. He coughed into a napkin and glared at her but she was looking away with a wistful look on her face.

“Oi! Did you not hear what I just said?!” Isabel shrugged again and he sighed, aggravated. “Whatever. I’ll be gone in four days, then he’ll be just your problem.” Isabel finished her tea in one swallow and jumped up.

“Yep! And that’s why we need to spend each and every minute we have left having fun and driving you crazy!” She hooked her arm in Levi’s and pulled him up, dragging him out of the room and leaving his tea behind. “Eren! Farlan!” she called. Eren peeked out of the living room while Farlan walked out of the study.

“What?” Farlan asked gruffly. Levi let himself be dragged along by the redhead, noticing Eren looking at him strangely while the bird on his shoulder pecked at his hair.

“I’m going to make dinner while you all go to the beach. So grab whatever you need and get out,” she said. Eren looked down at his bird before looking back to her.

“Oh, alright! I'll just need a few minutes,” Eren said and passed them to get to the guest room. Farlan went back into the study with the same answer and Isabel smiled at Levi before letting him go and heading back into the kitchen.

Levi went into his room and sat on the end of the empty bed. Four days until he had to leave again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love that you guys love this owo  
> Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated! (0//D//0) ~ --3 huff!


	7. Restoration

Eren was panicking.

“Armin I haven’t tried swimming with legs after our practice! You said I could get my tail back but I don't know how to control it! What if I turn while in the water and one of them sees me? And if they do, do I swim away? I can’t do that- I- I don't want to do that! I like these humans and even if I don’t-"

“Eren calm down!” Eren stopped his rambling and took a large gulp of air before flopping face first onto the sheets and groaning. Armin bounced a little on the bed and clicked at him disapprovingly. “You don’t have to go swimming. We could just stay on the beach and collect shells or read one of the new books Isabel bought us.”

“But I can’t Armin!” Eren shouted into the sheets. “I _need_  it... the water... The ocean is my _home_ and I’ve been away from it for too long. It’s like a craving...” Armin patted his head with a wing.

 “Okay how about we do this,” Armin said. “You’ll go swimming and I’ll stay on the beach, if something happens I’ll just distract the other two while you fix it. And later tonight we’ll go swimming together to get our fill of the ocean. I have to agree with you, we can’t act like land creatures when we’re the complete opposite.”

Eren turned his face out of the sheets and brought up a hand to stroke Armin’s feathery head. “Yeah… that sounds good. Let's do that.” He got up off the sheets and rummaged through the dresser full of clothes that Isabel helped him fold and organize. He pulled out some swimming trunks that she had picked out for him and started changing. Armin stopped him when his pants were off.

“What are those Eren?” Armin had his little head tilted to the side and Eren looked down at the fabric covering his lower abdomen.

“Oh, it’s something Farlan gave me to wear this morning, I thought they were just smaller pants but Farlan told me they were supposed to be worn _under_ your pants.” He paused in thought. “Do I put them on under the swimming trunks too?” Armin shook his head.

“I don’t think so. I'm guessing you’ll have to put them back on after you swim and if you keep them on they’ll be all wet.” Eren felt a little disappointed. He had gotten used to the clothing, it covered his genitals the same way his tail did and felt snug on his waist. He put on the swim trunks on anyway before grabbing one of the towels left in the room and putting Armin on his shoulder.

“Here goes nothing,” he said before leaving the room and walking down the hallway to find Farlan in similar looking shorts and holding a towel at the front door. Levi was with him as well but in his usual attire with his arms crossed and a book in one hand.

“You ready Eren?” Farlan asked and Eren nodded eagerly, he couldn’t wait to get in the water. Isabel waved them goodbye from the front door as they left, Farlan and Eren without shoes as the shore was close. Levi kept his shoes on and Eren guessed that he wouldn’t be swimming with them as they walked.

When the ocean came in sight Eren sprinted the short distance to the beach and threw his towel to the side. Armin flew off of his shoulder to skid onto the sand in a wobbly landing but Eren didn’t stop until his feet were submerged in the water and he laughed at the feeling of muddy sand between his toes.

It was a minute of kicking muddy sand around before Armin squawked at him from the beach. Eren blushed at the way Farlan was laughing at him and Levi staring at him with a bored expression while coming back and rearranging the towel under the shadow cast by a large boulder and placing Armin on it so he could get comfortable.

The sun was high in the sky and the air still hot, it would be a while before it would start to cool. He took his shirt off quickly and threw it next to Armin and the towl before turning on his heel and sprinting for the water. When he dived beneath the waves he shuddered with the feeling of releasing muscles he hadn't known were tense. It was like he could feel his body start to recharge and his heart beat hard in his chest as he submerged below the waves. Farlan quickly joined him and they splashed and chased each other around in the water.

In the back of his mind, Eren could feel something prodding for his attention as he swam. He could guess what it was. It was like water pouring over his mind and all he wanted to do was give in at that moment, could even feel the change begin, before feeling the brush of skin against skin as Farlan swam over him from above and he bolted back above the surface. He grasped onto the key around his neck as he gasped in the fresh air.

"Not now..." he mumbled. "Soon, just a little longer." The sleepiness that had started to settle in his mind quickly ebbed away and he felt it go dormant again. Eren held his head for a moment.

 _Did I just talk to my tail?_ He thought. He would have to talk about it with Armin later, but for the moment he would play. Soon enough Farlan left the water but Eren stayed. He could still see quite well, even without his tail, as he skimmed the shore underwater for shells and rocks he thought looked smooth or pretty. He found a few shiny and diversely colored rocks and shells and he felt something in his gut twist as an idea came to him.

 _Were there treasures around this part of the shore?_  

Now to other mermaids, this wouldn’t mean much, and to humans this would mean a lot, but Eren was raised in a pod that thrived off of treasures and collected hordes of gold to show superiority, and his generations, yes _generations_ , of instincts were kicking in. Of course he couldn't search there at that moment, he would need his tail to go deeper and keep him under longer to dig through the sand. He decided to check out more of the area later on on his swim with Armin and started paddling towards shore.

Farlan had already dried and put back on his shirt and he, Levi and Armin seemed to be dozing under the huge shaded boulder that they leaned on. He softly slid Armin off of the towel and placed him in the sand for the moment as he dried off and put his shirt back on, then picked up Armin again and cradled him in his arms.

He was going to shake either Farlan or Levi awake but when he looked back over to them Levi was stretching, his book by his side, and was peeking at Eren through one eye.

“I was just going to wake you up…” Eren said, trying to stay quiet for Armin. He knew Armin probably hadn’t slept at all since they had gotten here. Levi hummed and got up, kicking Farlan’s legs to wake him up.

“Who said I was asleep?” Eren blinked at him as he started walking back to the house and Farlan started blindly following him, groggily rubbing his eyes. Eren guessed that he was detached like this every time he woke up and followed after them, but not before looking back at the sun setting on the oceans horizon.

~o0o~

When they had gotten back to the house, Eren placed Armin in his room to sleep. He ate dinner with Isabel, Farlan, and a reluctant Levi who didn’t usually eat at all according to Isabel. The food was even more delicious than breakfast being boiled crawfish, his _favorite_ , with butter and salt along with a bit of salad that Eren also loved. He didn’t go straight back to his room, not wanting to disturb Armin’s cute little bird nap and instead went into the living room with one of his books to read until the time came for them to leave.

He felt refreshed after his little swim in the ocean, but now he was restless to let his tail out. The craving seemed to have _grown_ since he had gotten out and he was getting impatient. He put down his book and stared into the fireplace that crackled under his gaze and thought about what he would do when he went out as his eyes chased the hot ashes.

He would play of course, but there’s only so much time you can waste before you needed to sleep again. He would… ah he knew what he would do. Isabel had bought all these things for him and Armin had told him that humans traded certain amounts of gold and silver for supplies and such. It was a strange economy, but it was how they worked. If Isabel had spent lots of gold on him, he should give her some back right? That seemed like the right thing to do. And even so, who doesn’t like a bit of gold? So tonight, he decided, he would find Isabel some gold.

~o0o~

Armin wasn’t pleased when Eren woke him. He had slept for about four or six hours and now it was well into the night, still a couple hours from midnight though. Everyone had said their goodnights and the lanterns around the house were cooling.

“I mean what if you had needed me?" Armin whined. "What if they had asked something about you? You can’t just-“ 

“Armin," Eren cut him off. "I know you’re worried about me and everything, but you’re not the only one with a decently working brain around here. I know how to talk and occupy my time without you and you really needed the rest! You probably haven’t slept in the last twenty four hours! And even if I were being questioned you couldn’t help much because you can’t talk like you can now! So shush. It’s dark out, everyone is asleep or in their rooms at least, and I feel like my tail is going to burst out at any second if we don't get a move on." Eren finished and scooped up a muted Armin, cradling him to his chest. “So let’s go for a swim before we both explode.” He felt Armin nod his little head in the dark and opened the door to his room.

The house was quiet as he tip-toed across the hard wood floor and his chest hurt with the adrenaline running through his veins. The air was chilly against his warm skin and he felt anxious, as though he would be caught any second. But when he opened the front door and felt the ocean breeze hit his face he dismissed the feeling immediately. They would be back soon, they just needed to get back into their element for a while. 

The door opened and closed quietly and once he had ambled his way down the wood steps he broke into a sprint for the ocean. The farther he ran the more faster his blood rushed and once the ocean was in view it became maddening.

When he felt the water reach his toes he gave in and felt the change begin. His feet beneath the water lit up and made the water shine as his lower torso started tingling and numbing. He dived into the water, the warmth of his clothes replaced with cold skin and strong scales, the familiarity of it all washing over him in relieving waves. That part of him was once again being recharged as he beat his tail into the water, pushing himself farther into the depths. He could feel Armin beside him before he saw him and when he did he felt even more relief of seeing his friend’s true face again.

They twirled and spun under the waves, splashing and chasing each other like predators as the moon made the water sparkle. They sang a song to go along with their childish games and basked in the freedom and safety of the ocean. Soon enough, Eren remembered his goal from earlier to find gold for Isabel and the two mermaids made it into a game to see who could find a treasure the fastest.

They searched the ocean floor for a while before Eren finally found something. Two coin pieces, one made of thick gold and the other just as thick but made of silver. He dusted the sand off of them and saw that these were _old,_ older than any gold he had seen before. Even older than his key, but that was to be expected since he polished it frequently.

Eren was tempted to keep the pieces for himself, his instincts telling him to start a pile with these two gorgeous finds, but he denied it. He made a promise, albeit a silent one, but a promise all the same.

He swam to and broke the surface, exposing the jewel-like stars against a blue, violet and black painted sky. He had never seen it in this light before, usually all he saw was a wobbly white moon above pitch black, but above the waves the sky was solid aside from his moving in the water, half a moon and seemingly millions of stars watching them from their everlasting perch. Eren rubbed his eyes to make sure they were real. The waves pushed him around, messing with his sight and the brunette reluctantly tore his eyes away to go to the rock he and Armin had decided to return to when they found something. He found Armin already there, holding onto a rock behind him to keep still while his bright blue eyes gazed up at the view.

Eren swam up beside the blonde and held out the two coins. “Armin,” Armin snapped out of his star gazing and turned to him. "Look!' He held out the coin and Armin gasped.

“Eren, where did you find those?! They look really old!” He took the silver piece and inspected it as Eren looked down at the gold piece.

“I just found them, they look older than my key… How much do you think they’re worth?” he asked. Armin tilted his head at him and took the gold piece as well, raising them both in the air as if to test their weight.

“I don’t know much about human economy, so I can’t say. You said you wanted to give these to Isabel for taking you in right?” he asked and Eren nodded. “Humans seem to like old things, they call them _antiques,_ so even if these aren’t worth much they could be sold for even more! A good find Eren, are you sure you don’t want to keep them?” Eren shook his head and took the silver piece back.

“No, Isabel has done a lot for us, I want to repay her,” he said firmly and Armin smiled at him.

“Just checking.” The blonde leaned back on the rock again, returning his gaze to the stars and Eren joined him.

“They’re beautiful,” Armin said and Eren hummed happily in response. Most everything looked so much more detailed and beautiful above water. Eren felt so much pity for all the creatures in the sea that couldn’t see it. He felt pity for himself for not trying to see it sooner.

Eren recalled when he and Armin were younger and were reading the tomes. Armin had brought him to read the stones that described mountains and forests, and _humans_ as well. Eren could believe in trees and grass and hot sand above, but humans to him were a complete myth. Of course he believed it to some degree, not wanting to take the chance of meeting one and not knowing a thing about them, that was if he ever _went_ to the surface. But now they had gone to the surface, been on land, eaten human food, _met humans_ , all in the span of two days. That impossible dream came true and the feeling of realizing that couldn’t be sweeter.

He and Armin watched the stars for a while more before deciding to go back to shore. As Eren approached the shore he realized he didn’t exactly know how to return to his human form. Armin obviously guessed his distress and touched his shoulder gently.

“Just concentrate,” he said. “Think of what you want through your mind's eye and your body will bend to your will.” The two crawled up onto the sand and laid on their bellies. “Watch me. Er… well don’t, but watch me concentrate. Don’t want you to burn your eyes out.” Eren watched as he closed his eyes and his face melded into relaxed concentration. His skin started to glow and that’s when Eren turned away and closed his eyes and when the glow faded he turned back. Beside him Armin was now sitting on his haunches staring at him with two cute little black eyes and feathered wings. “Now you try,” he said in a scratchier voice than the one he'd just heard and Eren nodded with a smile.

He closed his eyes and tried relaxing but it was hard when he was holding himself up on his forearms. So he rolled over onto his back and relaxed as many parts of his body that he could before imagining his legs. How they moved, how he walked, how he wiggled his toes, and felt the familiar tingle in his tail again. He could see a light behind his eyelids but ignored it, concentrating on thinking of his legs so the process wouldn’t mess up, and when he opened his eyes again his legs were back, but also his night clothes and he was completely dry.

“Whoa…” Eren said with awe and Armin agreed with a coo.

“I didn’t know that could happen. I thought at the least you would be naked and wet, so this is interesting...” Eren blushed furiously at his words. He didn’t know why, but the thought of being naked made him feel uncomfortable while before he wouldn’t have cared. Armin cawed a laugh at the face he made, obviously not seeing the dark blush on his cheeks or else he would have teased him immediately.

They made their way back to the house through the dark and Eren thought they might have gotten lost, until he saw a light. He followed it to find one of the house windows glowing from a light inside, seemingly from what would be the living room in the house. Eren’s heart dropped and he clutched at it through his shirt, his hands becoming sweaty around the coins.

“Armin! Armin someone’s awake!” Eren whisper shouted and Armin shushed him.

“Eren, shh calm down, its fine. We’ll just tell them you had a nightmare and went on a walk,” he said and Eren nodded, taking deep breathes to calm himself.

He started again for the house and climbed the steps, opening the door and slipping in quietly before closing it and tip toeing over to the living room entrance. He peeked in to find Levi sitting in one of the chairs by the fire, which was crackling quietly and flickering light around the room haphazardly. He was reading a book and Eren thought with relief that he might be able to slip by without having to explain himself, until his gaze slipped from the pages to Eren’s rigid form in the doorway.

“Eren?” he asked and Eren felt his heart beat erratically. “What are you doing? It past midnight.” Levi narrowed his eyes at him and Eren shuffled his feet.

“I uh… I had a nightmare…” he lied, the words leaving a bad taste on his tongue. “And went to walk it off by the beach.” Eren thought that that would be the end of it, but then Levi closed the book he was reading and turned to him fully.

“Why didn’t you just wake someone?” he asked. “I’m sure Isabel would have loved to help.” Eren felt his face start going hot from embarrassment. Why he was embarrassed? He had no idea. It was just Levi, Levi wasn’t threatening or scary. But he was intimidating… and Eren forced himself to not look away from those sharp silver eyes, suspicious and searching, unless he wanted to be caught.

“I… I didn’t want to... wake them up in the middle of the night just for a dumb dream,” he said, finally looking down at his feet. Part of that was true, Eren hadn’t woken Armin whenever he had a bad dream either, even when they were younger. Instead, he would go to his parents for comfort. He remembered them rocking him back to sleep and his mother singing to him and giving him sweet dreams. The memory made his stomach twist with remorse and he tried to blink away the tears forming in his eyes. There were a few moments of silence until Levi spoke.

“Well that’s stupid.” He got up, placing his book on the coffee table and swiftly making his way over to Eren. Eren flinched when Levi lifted his chin with one of his hand, long, slender fingers surprisingly rough on his skin. “Next time you have a bad dream just come to me. I don’t sleep all that much, so you won’t be bothering me,” he said and Eren’s eyes widened. He hadn’t expected Levi to offer that. In fact he had expected Levi to start interrogating him and he would end up running back into the ocean.

Just as quickly as Levi had made it to Eren he was gone, sliding past him and down the hallway to his own room and leaving Eren staring at the fire in a daze. _What just happened?_ he asked himself and touched his chin. He felt Armin, who had been sitting on his shoulder tensely throughout the encounter, nibble on his ear and snapped out of his little trance.

“Okay…” he whispered, as if Levi were still listening. Then he shook his head and glanced at Armin. “Er… I mean, sorry… Yeah, let’s go to bed.” Armin stared at him blankley and Eren ignored it as he made his way down the hallway and into his own room. He placed Armin on one of the pillows to burrow in and got under the covers himself.

As he laid on top of the feathery mattress and tucked himself under the fluffy comforter he thought about what Levi had said. He looked so suspicious… So, why did he offer that? He said he doesn’t sleep much, so does he have trouble sleeping? Why? Did he mean it? Eren found himself thinking that if he did have a bad dream… he would probably take Levi up on his offer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woopsie for got to upload this yesterday owo'  
> So many updates lately from other authors I'm so happy X3  
> Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated! (n//o//n) ~ arooo!


	8. A Captain's Troubled Heart

Eren woke up a little later than the day before, not quite that much later because the sky was still a bit dark outside his window. He didn’t dream of anything that night, which was unfortunately normal. His usual dreams consisted of either darkness, or a whole other kind of darkness with nightmares containing situations anxious thoughts of what might have happened to his parents, or what might happen to Armin or himself if they were in danger. This adventure was honestly giving his brain more material to work with against him.

He looked to his left to find Armin in the cutest little pellet of feathers he had ever seen, his head and claws tucked into his chest, one wing tucked under him and the other being used like a blanket.

He got up slowly, as to not wake the feathery ball, and rummaged through his drawer for new clothes. He found more ‘underwear’ inside, which was probably Isabel’s doing because he didn’t remember trying any on or putting more in his new satchel. He decided to grab a new pair, along with a light blue cotton shirt and black cotton pants. He changed, grabbed one of the new books Isabel bought him and left his room, closing the door quietly behind him.

The brunette planned to just read the morning, and probably whole day away, until he felt his shoulder pull as he walked and rubbed it with a hiss. _I must have slept on it wrong sometime last night,_ he thought. He would have to stretch some this morning instead of read.

When he entered, he immediately noticed the book Levi had been reading last night on the coffee table. He placed his own book beside it and picked the other one up. The title was in a different language that Eren couldn’t translate without his ring’s magic, which he and Armin had decided to leave in their room at all times.

He placed it back on the table and looked at the fire place, rubbing his shoulders for warmth. The house had become terribly cold overnight but he had no idea how to start the fire. All he could do was stare at the grey ashes accumulated from that night. He tried to use logic like Armin had told him to when he was confused.

Well he knew fire burned wood, but they didn’t keep wood inside, so he opened the porch door next to the couch and peeked his head out into the near freezing air. Beside the door were a bunch of stacks of firewood and he pat himself on the back before grabbing a few pieces and going back inside and throwing a few in the fire place.

Humans most definitely had tools for starting the fire, but he found no potential tools aside from some metal rods hanging from the mantle. He sat in the middle of the floor and glared at the pieces of wood in the fireplace. 

An idea occurred to him and he looked down at his hand. He could use his magic... _no,_ he shook his head and got up abruptly. _That's too dangerous... I could could go out of control. I'll just use the ring._  The brunette tip toed back down the hallway and into his room, opening the top drawer to the wardrobe and moving aside the neatly folded clothes to steal the silk white handkerchief containing the sapphire ring. He padded back into the living room and slipped the ring on before pointing the deep blue stone at the fireplace and concentrating. He let the image of the fire from last night when he got back from swimming fill his mind's eye and uttered, _"ignis"._ A second later the wood started to crumple and char and embers formed fast as the logs combusted into flames. 

Eren gave himself a mental congratulations and slipped the ring off quickly, tucking it back into the white handkerchief and into his pocket, wincing when he felt his shoulder remind him of his pains. He made his way over to the carpet in the middle of the living room and started stretching his arms and rolling his shoulders and neck the way he liked it. He didn’t know how to stretch his legs, as he hadn’t had legs before, but decided to try some new positions. He leaned forward, aiming to touch his toes and in fact went past his toes to put his palms on the floor. He did the same thing backwards and was able to touch the floor with his fingertips, raising himself from the positions slowly so his spine could realign. Then he sat and started reaching for his toes again.

He tried a bunch of new positions, each feeling amazing on his hips and thighs, and it was when he was hunched over, reaching past one of his feet while doing the splits, that he finally noticed someone standing in the archway. The brunette stared wide eyed at Levi, who was leaning against the framework and holding a tea cup by the rim, staring at him with one eyebrow raised. He was dressed in black cotton pants and a crisp white shirt that didn’t have a single wrinkle in it. His hair was a bit damp from a shower and was parted evenly with the longer hairs of his bangs hanging in his eyes. Eren felt his face go hot.

“What the hell are you doing?” Levi asked and Eren slowly leaned back to realign his spine and roll his shoulders again.

“Uh… stretching,” he said shyly and crossed his legs where he was sitting. “I was going to read but… my shoulder hurt so I decided to stretch instead.” He looked down and then at the fire, which had since calmed down while he was stretching, that was crackling and sparking happily. He smiled proudly and pointed at it. “I started the fire too! Ah...” The sudden pain in his arm made him cringe and pull his hand back. “Maybe I pulled something…” he mumbled to himself and rubbed his shoulder.

The raven hummed and Eren once again tried rolling the knot out of his shoulder until Levi spoke again. “Oi, that’s only going to make it worse,” he said. Eren could feel frustrated tears filling his eyes, his shoulder was really hurting now, and rubbed it again while not meeting the man’s silver eyes. Levi sighed before walking over to the fireplace and placing his tea on the coffee table. He sat in one of the chairs and turned to Eren.

“Come here,” he said, pointing to the floor between his legs. Eren stared at him with confusion and stayed where he was for a moment before getting up and doing as he was told. Levi scoffed when Eren sat down looking up at him. “Turn around,” he said and Eren tilted his head at him before turning.

“Um… what-“

“Hold sill,” he instructed and Eren wrung his wrist nervously, frozen in place.

All of a sudden Levi was pushing his thumbs into Eren’s shoulder, rubbing them in rough circles that felt hard but also heavenly on his muscles. At first he tensed up at the sudden contact but as Levi continued to knead his shoulder he relaxed into it and soon felt that knot in his shoulder pop and the throbbing cease into relief. He sighed happily and almost purred as Levi kept rubbing his shoulders. Levi found a few more knots he hadn’t known were there and he was a mess to his rough but heavenly fingers.

He felt his hands rub into the nape of his neck and brush against his hair and when Levi pulled his hands away Eren was half awake, wanting to just fall asleep on the spot with those hands on his back.

“Is that better?” Levi asked and Eren felt heat rise to his cheeks.

“Much better thanks…” he said in a slight daze and got up from where he was sitting to flop in the other vacant chair. Levi crossed his legs and sighed again.

“It’s a fucking pain when that happens. I thought I might spare you from that.” Eren was half asleep in his chair, barely taking in the words, and hummed a response to him. Levi gave him a sidelong glance. “If you fall asleep in that chair like that you’re going to hurt your back again,” Levi said.

“You’re right…” he agreed and sat up again, rubbing his eyes. “I should go wake up Armin…”

“And I should go wake up the brats,” the raven said. “But I’d rather enjoy the silence a bit longer.” He picked up the book he had been reading the night before and flipped through the pages to find his spot.

Eren stared at him for a moment as the raven found his place and leaned back in his chair. He picked up the book he had wanted to read and opened it to the first page, but as he started to read he felt his eyelids grow increasingly heavier and soon realized he wasn’t actually taking in the words he was reading. He tried shaking his head to rid of the drowsiness but that just made him dizzy and he kept his eyes closed. As his head leaned on the chair he thought he could still feel those wonderful touches on his back and missed the book falling from his hands as his muddled brain emptied into the usual darkness, only now, it seemed to be gray.

~o0o~

What the fuck was that? Levi heard the brats book fall and looked over to see the brunette that was seemingly fast asleep. The raven sighed and closed his book, he wasn’t really paying attention to it anyway. His thoughts were more preoccupied with the brat he just gave a _massage_ to.

He picked up the brunettes book and placed it along with his on the coffee table where they had been when he walked in. Did he seriously give a stranger, a brat, someone who is hiding something and lied to him and his family, a fucking _massage?_ He wouldn’t give anyone a massage out of pity!

He dry washed his face with his hands and looked over at the brat. He was slumped in the chair with his bangs tilted to the side over his eyes, his boyish face looking more childish in his sleep. The fire coated an orange glow on his slightly tan skin and casted shadows around his defined, yet also adolescent features. His face held a soft look, like he was on a cloud even though he was on a velvet chair which at times wasn’t all that comfortable.

Levi wondered how he could still sleep even after just waking, as he heard the brat shuffling around the house that morning, until he remembered how late he had come back last night. He himself had gotten about three hours of sleep, as usual, before he was pushed out of his dreams from the sound of screams and visions of blood seeping through wood-

He shook his head and rubbed his face again. He didn’t want to remember that life. He didn’t want to remember what he had done. Eren seemed undisturbed about the fact that he had just chipped the edge of a potential anxiety attack and continued to breathe softly and evenly.

Levi watched his chest rise and fall for a while. Why did he do that? What about the brat had made him think it was okay to do that? Was it because he looks weak? No, he had a toned body for sure. Not as much as Levi but he didn’t seem _weak_ per say. Was it his hurting? Levi had felt something in him twinge at the sight of the brunettes blue-green eyes watering and how he had rubbed his shoulder frustratedly. He remembered the satisfied feeling he got when the brat had relaxed into his touch. He also remembered the feeling of his soft skin on his neck and silky chocolate hair brushing against his fingers, he couldn't remember ever feeling something so soft really-

Levi picked up his tea and swallowed the rest of its contents. What was he thinking? This brat didn’t matter. In four days he would be out of his life and far away. They might see each other again in a year or less if the kid decided to stay with Isabel and Farlan. And isn’t that what he is? A kid. At least he was a kid to him.

Said kid was still sleeping in that chair in a sore position that Levi wouldn’t appreciate if he was in his place. He got up and knelt down in front of the brunette, wrapping his right arm under the legs and his left arm under the torso. Levi lifted him easily and found him to be not exactly light but not at all heavy. The brunette stirred slightly and the raven froze, his mind a whir with thoughts and explanations to what he was doing, until the younger man curled into the ravens hold and laid his head and hand on Levi’s chest.

Levi stared down at the boy in his hold and felt his heartbeat thicken. He hadn’t been this platonically close to another person since he was a child, and the green-eyed boy sleeping so easily while being held by someone like _him_ …

Levi waited a moment to make sure the younger man was still asleep before quickly and quietly making his way to his room. He opened the door with his left hand and made his way in, seeing the yellow and blue bird curled in a ball atop one of the pillows. The raven pulled back the covers to place the brunette down on the bed carefully and covered him up again. The brunette snuggled deeper into the comforter and Levi sighed, begging his heartbeat to slow because this new pace was different and he didn’t know if he liked it or not.

He stared at the boy's face for a second more before leaving the room and not looking back, completely missing the two small black eyes that followed him out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHAT IS THIS?? Over a THOUSAND HITS?? I honestly dont know what that means, like, have a thousand people looked at this crape or have like a hundred people looked at it ten times? I don't-  
> ~  
> I'm sorry this was so short I hope you all like it anyway ;w;  
> Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated! (^//o//^) ~ woof!


	9. Constellations

“ _Eren…_ ” Eren heard someone call his name through his thick, heavy sleep.

“ _Eren, dear… come now…_ ” Someone shook his shoulder gently.

“ _It’s time to wake up…_ ” He recognized that voice…

“ _Eren._ ”

“Mom?” Eren blinked his eyes open to see two green irises staring back at him quizzically.

“What was that?” Isabel asked with a raised eyebrow. She was sitting on his bedside with a hand placed on his shoulder. Eren blinked again and sat up, drowsily rubbing his eyes before looking at Isabel again. _I could’ve sworn…_

“Eren?”

“Nothing…” he said and yawned. “Whas’ goin on?” Isabel snickered at him.

“I made brunch since we both slept through breakfast,” she said and raised a hand to ruffle his hair. “Love the bedhead look by the way.” Eren blushed and started trying to tame his hair with his hands. Isabel laughed at his struggle until she noticed his clothes. “Did you sleep in your clothes?” she asked.

Eren tilted his head and looked down, finding himself still in those black cotton pants and light blue shirt. His muddled brain seemed to light up as he remembered that morning. The fire, the stretching, the _massage_ …

He felt his face heat up. Did he fall asleep? If he did how did he get into bed again? Did Levi carry him back? Why? Why’d he give him a massage? The brunette hid his face in his hands, pretending to rub the sleep out of his eyes. “I-I woke up earlier then fell back asleep after r-reading in my bed,” he lied. He honestly didn’t know why he was lying, wasn’t Levi like that with other humans? Why should he be any different?

“Oh alright. Well since you’re already dressed we don’t have to wait for you. C’mon let’s go eat!” She slapped his thigh and jumped up before skipping out of the room. Eat. Right. Eat with Isabel, Farlan and… Levi… The brunette picked up a pillow and whined into it. He was so embarrassed, he couldn’t do it. But if he didn’t, he’d have to explain why and he couldn’t just tell Isabel he lied to her face, what if he lost her trust? Most of his brain said that is a dumb assumption, but… there’s still that one portion that told him it wouldn’t hurt to keep this forming relationship with Levi a secret.

It’s just a little lie. They were just getting along. Nothing’s changed.

Nothing’s changed.

With that in mind he got out of bed and smoothed out his clothes before padding to the open door. He paused and turned around, looking for that ball of feathers and when he didn’t see it he sighed. Armin probably didn’t know that he ever left and went to the kitchen with Isabel, he thought, and proceeded down the hallway to the kitchen close by. When he turned into the kitchen he saw everyone in their usual spots, Isabel at the stove, Farlan facing the doorway while sitting at the table, and Levi on the leftmost side of the table. But still… no Armin.

Eren’s previous worries of embarrassment towards Levi quickly dissipated when he didn’t see his friend anywhere.

“Morning Eren!” Isabel greeted, already filling plates. Farlan was once again drinking a cup of “coffee” and Levi was sipping his “tea”. There was a mug of what Eren assumed was hot chocolate where he sat yesterday. He carefully took his seat, crossing his legs on his seat (he wanted to use them as much as possible) and blew on his hot chocolate. Isabel placed a plate in front of him, Farlan and herself, but not in front of Levi. The brunette tilted his head at this but continued on with his breakfast anyway, missing Levi’s side glance at the action.

“Hey Eren… what happened to Armin?” Isabel asked. The brunette paused in eating and raised a hand to hold his key. Was this how Armin felt when Eren suddenly left?

“Uh… what do you mean?”

“Well this morning when I opened your bedroom door he wasn’t there and the window was open. Did you let him out or something?” Eren wrung his key between his fingers.

“Ah… yeah, I let him out. He needs his air sometimes, but he’ll be back.” The teal-eyed boy didn’t meet their eyes and took another sip of his hot chocolate. He didn’t let Armin out. He wasn’t even awake so how could he? He didn’t know if Armin would come back and he was internally panicking but he just kept eating, letting the warm food settle in his belly and the taste wash over his tongue. He had never had hot food before he came to the surface, it was delicious.

The brunette stuffed his face with comfort food, entirely missing Levi’s stiff and suspicious glare from across the table.

~o0o~

Eren had just finished helping Isabel with the dishes… or more just finished learning how to do the dishes. Isabel was ruthless, scrubbing the dishes like they were being punished for something. She taught him to scrub the plates in circular motions and he realized easily why he had to scrub so hard when little pieces of food kept sticking to the plate.

He was thinking about Armin on the way to his room. He was still worried as Tartarus about his best friend. His worries disappeared when he opened the door to his room and saw the familiar blue and gold bird sitting on the middle of his bed in front of an open book.

“Armin!” Eren closed the door behind him and knelt next to the bed. Armin stayed looking down at the book, an astrology book, Eren saw.

“I’ve been so worried about you! Why did you leave with the window open? What were you doing out there?” Eren had a few other questions but he stopped short when Armin suddenly squawked at him and flapped his wings wildly.

“What does it matter to you?! You never tell me where you’re going so why should I be so courteous?” Armin said angrily as Eren stared at him with wide eyes. A pang of guilt shot through the brunette and he looked away from Armin regretfully.

“Armin... I’m sorry, you’re right. I shouldn’t keep just leaving you behind when I want to go do something. You have every right to be angry and I’m sorry,” the brunette apologized.

Armin didn’t say anything and Eren felt a little worse. He didn’t mean to make Armin worry when he went to eat without him or that morning when he went to read.

Suddenly he felt a familiar tug on his hair and looked up to see Armin yanking on a lock with his beak. The brunette smiled and opened his arms for a mini hug and Armin allowed him.

“I forgive you Eren,” Armin said. They pulled away and Armin shagged him over the head with a wing. “Just make sure to tell me where you’re going and why and I’ll do the same.” Eren nodded, smiling wide. “I went out to study humans some more and got some pretty good info from the market, mainly courting info but it was amusing to watch.”

Eren stuck his tongue out at the word courting. “Blegh! Count me out. I don’t wanna know how humans mate.”

“Oh come on Eren, how will you know if you’re being courted unless I tell you how?” Armin asked in a teasing voice. Eren scrunched up his nose.

“Why would anyone want to court me?” he asked. Armin made a show of looking him up and down and then turning away.

“You’re right, why _would_ anyone want to court you?” Eren’s eyes widened and he scoffed before grabbing a pillow to throw at him. Armin barely dodged with a roll to the side and the two of them laughed. “It doesn’t matter anyway.” Armin said when the laughter subsided to giggles. “Only male humans court females, like our species.”

Eren sighed and rested his elbows on the bed. He eyed the book Armin was reading. “Learn anything interesting?” he asked. Armin looked down at the book and pushed it over towards Eren.

“Yes actually. Humans date time by years and not moons, like we do. They do use moons but they call them _months._ They gave each month a name, but besides that they also give a certain amount of days throughout the year called a constellation, which is like a picture in the sky made up from the stars,” Armin enlightened. He flipped the pages until it came to a sketch of dots connecting into a sort of jagged line. Next to the sketch of stars was another sketch of a land animal, one that Eren had seen in his zoology book. From what he read, it was called a Ram. “This is the constellation Aires which is related to the moon you were born on, which they call March. See how the two kinda look the same?” Armin asked. Eren picked up the book and studied the two sketches.

“Why do they think the stars make up these pictures?” Eren asked.

“The stars that they call constellations never change. As in they’ve been the same for centuries,” Armin explained. Eren nodded and pushed the book back over to Armin.

“Which one is your constellation?” he asked. Armin flipped a few more pages and stopped at a sketch of what Eren had read was a scorpion, and it’s equivalent sketch made up from the stars. The sketch of the stars did actually take the form of a scorpion.

“Mine would be Scorpius since I was born on the month of what they call November,” Armin said with a little puff in his chest. Eren looked at the detailed sketch of the scorpion with awe.

“How do they get all the details for these animals?” Eren asked. “Most of the ones I’ve seen in my book are too dangerous to get too close too…”

“Human’s will probably do anything to learn more about their own world,” Armin said, flipping back to the page he was reading. Eren rested his chin in his hands.

“Well I want to go see it all for myself. Maybe even discover new lands, or find other creatures like us! Maybe becoming a part of the human community…” Eren heard Armin snort and he whipped his head towards him, shattering his daydreaming. “What?!”

“From the history and mythical books _I’ve_ read, humanity kills anything that doesn’t look like it, even it’s own kind.” Armin faltered at his own words. “Kind of like our species…” Eren’s face merged from frustration to concern and he sighed.

“Armin…” He reached out a hand to pet his little form when all of a sudden the door was swung open, scaring Eren into falling back on his butt from where he’d been on his knees.

“Eren! Grab whatever you need to entertain yourself throughout the rest of the day, but make it light. We’re going to Levi’s ship!”

 

~o0o~

“No.”

“But Leviii!”

“No Isabel.”

“That’s unfair!” Isabel threw a poppy seed at Levi, hitting the side of his head and he clicked his tongue. “We could have _walked_ over to Maria in the time you spent there and now you won’t let us visit the crew?!” Levi sipped the last bits of his third cup of tea and set it down agitatedly.

“Isabel, I thought I told you this in my letter. We needed to emergency restock from the long voyage _and_ needed to refill our goods for the next delivery. It was either two months in Maria or another two weeks at sea to get here, and even if I did get here I would have been too busy to come see you refilling goods and restocking resources.” Levi gave her a deadpan look. “I’m not going to starve my crew two extra weeks just to come see you.” Isabel rolled her eyes and exhaled sharply.

“Okay, whatever, I get that part. But what I want to know is why you won’t let me come see the crew when you’re only here for another three days!” Levi internally winced at that fact. Four days, including today, until he was back out there. Usually he would feel remorse for leaving Farlan and Isabel again, but he felt it was just a little stronger this time. It was probably just because he usually stayed longer before, right? Right.

“It’s because there are a few new members that joined from when we were in Trost. They haven’t been around all that long and I don’t know what they could do without me nearby. I know how you get,” he said, side glancing her with an exasperated look and she groaned.

“One time. That was one time I fell off the mast! Hasn’t happened since!”

“Yeah, because that was the last time I was here and you haven’t had any ships to fall off since then,” Levi said. Isabel giggled at the memory.

“Is Reiner still on your crew?” Isabel asked, Reiner being the man who had caught her when she fell. “Please tell me you haven’t offed anyone since last time you were here!”

Levi sucked his teeth. “No I haven’t. There’s no point to. Though most of the new members from Maria are snot nosed brats that create more messes than they clean,” he said, a scowl forming on his face. Isabel instead gasped excitedly and started jumping up and down.

“You hired younger crew members?! Now I _have_ to go meet them! Please please please _pleeeeease_ Levi?” Isabel begged, giving him her best puppy eyes and getting on her knees with her hands folded on the table top. Levi just gave her a bored look that she could easily see cracking. He wouldn’t hold long.

“Fine,” Levi grumbled. Isabel jumped up with a whoop and skipped towards the door that led out of the kitchen.

“Great! I’ll go tell Farlan and Eren and we can get going!” She said over her shoulder and then started for Eren’s door down the hallway.

“Eren?” Levi echoed. What was she… “Oh no.” In a second he was out of his chair and heading for the door after Isabel. Like hell that brat was getting on _his_ ship.

It was too late however, when he turned the corner and saw Isabel already in Eren’s room and telling him to get ready.

 

~o0o~

Eren was shaking from the moment they left the house. Whether it was from excitement, fear, or anxiety, he was filled with adrenaline all the same from being able to visit town again, not to mention also a human ship.

He knew they were going to the docks where the ship they had followed docked, but he didn’t know how they were getting there by land when he had always seen it from the point of view of water. He absently listened to Isabel and Farlan chatting in front of him as he got lost in thought. He wondered what had happened to that ship. Had they left again? He hoped not, which was a strange wish. He guessed he just didn't want to lose his first human memory to leave so soon.

The brunette felt something nibble on his ear that snapped him out of his daze. He side glanced at Armin before chuckling and grabbing a cracker from his satchel, giving it to the small bird who snatched it out of his hand. Eren was momentarily surprised at how animalistic Armin acted just then, the thought making him giggle and earning him a tighter grip from Armin’s claws on his shoulder.

It was just then that they turned the slope and came into view of the docks, Eren’s eyes widening into saucers at the sight before him.

There were ships all along the coast both leaving, entering and simply floating about in the harbor. The horizon line was a dark shade of blue contrasting against the bright blue sky gently. The sun was high in the sky, it being mid-afternoon, and fluffy white clouds were spread against the sky along with gulls and other types of birds that weaved through the white masts and gathered all along the beach, pecking in the sand and dipping into the water for food. There were at least a hundred and more humans gathered at the docks carrying bags and boxes alike, tying ropes or laughing and drinking with other sailors.

Eren held his breath. He had seen only a fraction of the harbor from the water in comparison to the view he saw on this slope. What really caught his eye however, was the green flag with two overlapping wings connected to one of the biggest ships in port. Eren knew just how big it was, having swam alongside and under it, but from where he stood Eren thought it looked even _bigger_ somehow when floating alongside the other smaller ships.

Eren hadn’t realized he’d stopped walking even after Levi almost ran into him. The raven’s remark died in his throat upon seeing the brunette’s face.

Levi hadn’t been thinking about much on their walk but was able to stop just in time of running into the brat he had been following. Eren looked simply awestruck, hands held to his chest and not moving, probably not breathing from what Levi could see. The filthy bird on his shoulder had even stopped halfway through their cracker snack to stare out at the docks. All Levi really saw was the harbor consisting of the bright as fuck sun, the idiot workers who were majority drunk, the disgusting birds that made him want to clean his ship constantly, and the ocean, which was the only nice looking thing in the picture. What was so special about this view that the bird and the kid were so enraptured?

Levi turned his sights to Farlan and Isabel who were slightly down the hill already and had stopped their talk to instead hold hands, apparently forgetting the brat they were babysitting enough to get lost in each other.

Levi unconsciously stared at their joined hands a few moments before shaking his head and whistling to them. They both turned their heads to see him and Eren still at the top of the hill, Eren with wide eyes and holding his hands against his chest. Levi realized from Isabel’s point of view, Eren might have looked scared. _Maybe she'll just take Eren back to the house,_ he thought hopelessly.

Isabel broke their hands to climb back the short distance to the top of the slope and take one of Eren’s hands, making Eren look down at her suddenly. Levi's mind happened to remind him at that moment of how soft Eren’s skin had been. He slightly missed that smooth feeling. He found himself staring at their joined hands a little longer than he'd like to admit.

“Eren?” Isabel asked with a concerned expression. “Are you alright?” Eren stared at her another moment before switching back to the view with a huge smile spreading across his face. Levi felt the corners of his lips twitch. That smile was contagious.

“It’s just so… beautiful,” he said with a laugh that easily grew playful and gigglish and suddenly he was dragging Isabel down the slope. Levi’s heart beat felt thick at the sound.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do you guys even like this??? I don't even know but I'll keep writing.  
> Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated! (n//p//n) ~ yummyy


	10. Captain and His Ship

Isabel held Eren’s hands as they walked to the docks, Eren looking around as they strolled down the wooden boards. Armin was barely focusing on finishing his cracker on his shoulder while Levi and Farlan walked silently a ways behind them. Eren looked at each of the ships as they passed, some having names painted on the bow, some having single masts and single sails while others had multiple. Men passed helping to carry their goods to and from destinations while women kissed an hugged their mate's in greeting or farewell. A couple kid ran past them, laughing as they ran by and Eren and Isabel giggled at their antics, though the brunette still felt apprehensive about the bustle around them.

“So we’re going to Levi’s ship?” Eren asked and Isabel nodded enthusiastically.

“Yep. It’s one of the biggest ships that can still dock in port!” she said. Eren’s mind immediately went to the ship he had followed to land, but that couldn’t be Levi’s ship. The odds were against him, there was no way.

But, as they got closer to that very ship, Isabel suddenly stopped right under the giant bird carving with its wings spread out on either side of the bow and Eren’s mouth dropped at her words.

“This is it! Isn’t it beautiful?” she asked. That must have been a rhetorical question, because of course it was beautiful. Eren had seen just how beautiful it had been at sea as well. “It’s called the “Wings of Freedom”, which, actually, I came up with.” She said proudly, puffing out her chest a little and giving Eren a smug look.

Eren was wrong to assume this wasn’t Levi’s ship. From what he had seen, the raven only accepted the best and the cleanest. The best clothing, spotless boots, he didn’t make a mess when eating but that was mostly because Eren hadn’t seen him eat yet, which was a strange act that Eren couldn’t wrap his head around. It made him a little worried even…

He shook his head and turned to Isabel. “How did you come up with the name?” he asked, distracting himself. _It's not my place to worry,_ he thought. Isabel let go of his hand and waved for him to follow as they went around the bow.

“I used to sketch birds a lot as a kid. It was one day when I was sketching a raven and a dove sitting next to each other on a tree, which was the strangest thing to see what with ravens being ruthless and doves so pure in symbolism. Farlan had scared them off though, when he broke something under his foot and watching them fly away together made my heart ache a little, they were so free.” Eren looked at Isabel’s face as they walked down the dock. Her mind seemed to be in another place as she spoke. “So the sudden name “Wings of Freedom” came to me, and that had been our little saying until Levi was brought into the Scouting Legion and had to name his ship.” She ended the story with an enthusiastic tilt to her tone but her eyes showed something else. Sadness.

“MAGNOLIAAA!!” A woman’s voice suddenly cut through the air and the sadness was startled out of Isabel, then taken over by excitement as she started forward.

“ZOEEE!!” She squealed in return, and Eren and Armin watched as suddenly there were two bodies melded together, jumping up and down and squealing in excitement. Eren’s eyes were wide in surprise, his shoulders scrunched from the sudden commotion, when Farlan suddenly chuckled beside him.

“That’s Hanji, Levi’s First Mate and Isabel’s best friend,” Farlan explained. Eren looked up at him then back at the two that were now holding hands and talking rapidly to each other.

 _First... mate?_ he thought.

“ _Oh my gosh_ it’s been too long!”

“Yeah it has! Has my munchkin been doing anything reckless in the time I’ve left him with you?”

“Not much but I should be asking you the same thing, you’ve had him longer!”

“Oh he’s been just as grumpy as ever. He did get us some sweet offers and deals on our trip though~ How’s the husband?”

“Whiny and busy as ever. How’s the crush?”

“Wh- uh haha HEY! Who’s this little cutie?!”

Eren felt Armin jump off his shoulder before his field of view was suddenly filled by a woman’s face, her large brown eyes shining under the goggles on her head as she studied him. Just as quickly as the woman had appeared she was torn back by a hand on her loosely put together ponytail.

“Shitty glasses, I’ve had more than enough of you over the last few months so _I’m_ used to you, but could you just tune it down around the brat? He might piss himself.” Levi let go of her hair and took a step back, crossing his arms and glaring at the woman. Eren took the chance to look at Levi's "first mate".

Hanji was the woman Eren had seen on the stern before when jumping on the ship. She still had brown hair and goggles but now Eren had a clear definition of her features. She had wide eyes that sparkled with curiosity and was just as jumpy as when he had first seen her. She now wore a peach colored button up that was smudged with dirt and black oil splatters along with black pants and a brown belt holding them up. She also had the same knee-high brown boots that Levi wore. Her goggles shined as she slid them onto her head and bellowed out a laugh despite having her head wrenched back but a moment ago. “Oh yes, wouldn’t want to get urine on your sparkling boots now would we?” Levi scowled at her words. “So who _is_ this adorable kid you’ve got with you?” She leaned forward, her eyes gleaming as she studied the brunette but still stayed about a foot away and Eren watched her with wide eyes, hands wrapped around his key.

“This is Eren. We kind of spooked him on the beach and he hurt himself and blah blah blah. Basically he lives with us now,” Isabel explained. Hanji turned to her with angry eyes and a pout.

“Now you _know_ that is not enough information for me!! I need the whole story!” she whined as Isabel turned on her heel and started for the steps that led onto the ship.

“ _Maybe_ I’ll tell you later,” Isabel said, prolonging the word maybe. “Right now though, I need to greet my other old friends!” Hanji yelled out as if in pain.

“There are no _maybes_ in this relationship Magnolia!” she shouted as she dashed after the red-head. Eren was startled when Farlan slung an arm around his shoulders and started walking with him.

“If I wasn’t married to that girl, I’m pretty sure Hanji would be,” he said with a snort and Eren smiled in return. He had suspicions that Farlan and Isabel were mates, and although he didn’t know what “married” was he was sure it was something like the final bonding his kind did after choosing their mates. Like his parents had told him about…

He was shaken out of his thoughts when he tripped on the first step that led onto the ship. He flailed for a moment until someone caught his collar and pulled him back onto his feet. Levi gave him an exasperated look as he passed the younger man and went up the steps, Armin watching him amused from where he perched on the railing of the ship. Eren could see his little head shake as if disappointed and the brunette stuck his tongue out at him before climbing up the stepsas well.

Now that he was on the deck everything seemed bigger. There were three thick masts that reached up to the sky with white bundles of sails tied to their wooden beams. There was netting strung up on either side of the main mast and ropes in piles all around the deck. Men were tying boxes and barrels and canons down through holes and around wood stumps on the railing to keep them secure. They were up in the mast, coming to and from the hold through a stairway that led to lower parts of the ship, but not at the stern, which Levi appeared to be aiming for. Eren could see Farlan and Isabel were already there, so he picked up Armin and set him on his shoulder before catching up with Levi and following him up the stairs.

He noticed some of the sailors stare at them, but Levi didn’t seem to mind. In fact, he glared at a few whose eyes began to linger. When they made it up the stairs they were met with Isabel hugging another smaller female and Farlan slapping the back of another man. Eren recognized the small female when Isabel let her go, her short, light strawberry hair hard to forget, as well as the male with short dark hair and the two other blond sailors from before. When they finally turned and saw Levi standing with crossed arms and Eren fidgeting behind him, the dark haired man fisted his right hand over his heart and stood straighter.

“Good afternoon, Captain!” he greeted, but Levi rolled his eyes.

“Jesus Gunther, not today,” he said before walking over to the steering wheel and leaning on it. Now Eren was alone, practically not breathing and not knowing what to do. Fortunately he didn’t need to do much when Isabel came over and put a gentle hand on his shoulder.

“This is Eren, he’s staying with us for a while and we wanted him to come see the ship,” she introduced him and Eren smiled in nervous greeting. The woman with strawberry hair gave him a friendly smile in return and held out her hand.

“I’m Petra Ral, the ships surgeon and one of Levi’s closer friends.” Levi scoffed at her words and Eren kind of looked at her hand curiously for a moment. What was she doing? Was he supposed to do something? Is this a type of greeting humans did? He held out his other hand and Petra met him halfway, shaking their hands and returning smiles.

The dark haired man also came up and shook hands with him, introducing himself as Gunther Schultz and the Weapons Master of the ship. The blond man with long hair tied back into a small ponytail presented himself as Eld Jinn, the Sailing Master, who was basically in charge of maps and navigation. Then there was the man with a two-toned haircut who scowled at him and crossed his arms.

“I’m Aurou Bossard, in charge of the brats down there and making sure the ship is still in or-” his sentence was cut off abruptly when he bit his tongue and his mouth started to bleed. Petra sighed beside the bleeding man before easily pulling a handkerchief from the pack on her belt and giving it to Aurou.

“He’s what people call the Boatswain,” she explained.

"More like Boats- _pain,_ " Farlan said and Aurou glared at him while holding the cloth to his mouth. Levi stared at the bleeding man with distaste and Eren was holding back a laugh until he felt a tug on his ear.

“Uh... this is Armin, who is feeling neglected enough to want to be introduced,” he said. Armin squawked loudly in his ear, making him wince.

“Oh! What a pretty bird!” Petra said. “Is he alright to pet?” she asked innocently. Eren couldn’t hold back a laugh at how absurd the question was. Armin flew off his shoulder, offended, and perched on a nearby railing while the brunette’s laugh subsided into chortles. Petra along with the others were all looking at him like he had two heads.

“Sorry! Sorry! Armin is just…” he snorted again. “He’s smarter than he looks…” he said before continuing to giggle behind his hand. He found it very funny how the humans made Armin out to be his pet, it was just comical how he was treated. Armin squawked loudly at him and Eren gave him a helpless shrug. The small bird huffed and promptly turned around, sitting on the railing and making Eren laugh again. “I’m sorry, it’s just too funny!” he exclaimed but Armin still ignored him and Petra looked between the two in confusion. Eventually she took a cracker out of her pack and walked over to the railing, kneeling next to the huffing bird.

“I don’t know what’s so funny,” she started and Eren’s smile was starting to hurt with the effort to not laugh again. “But I guess I’m apologizing in Eren’s stead so… forgive us?” she asked, holding out the cracker with an unsure look. Armin kind of gave her a side glance while Aurou tsked behind her.

“Oh please Petra, that bird doesn’t know what you’re saying-” suddenly Armin chirped at her and jumped up onto her shoulder, snatching the cracker up in mid-hop. Petra kind of sat on her knee and looked at Eren questioningly. Eren nodded at her encouragingly and she raised a hand to pet the small bird's feathers. Armin was quicker to finish his cracker while Petra slowly stood, petting his wings.

“They’re so soft,” she complimented and Armin chittered before using her hair to climb on her head and surprise everyone at the stern. Petra giggled as Armin balanced and peered at everyone from his higher elevation.

“What a strange bird…” Gunther scratched his head while Eld got closer and tried petting his wings as well.

“Yeah, I kind of want one too,” the blond said with envy and Armin jumped on his hand, climbing up his arm to his shoulder. All of a sudden Eren was being shaken back and forth by the shoulders from an unknown assailant.

“You have to tell me Eren! WHERE DID YOU GET THAT BIRD?!” Hanji practically screeched but in a split second she was sitting on the ground rubbing the back of her head with a whine. Eren watched dumbfounded from where he stood.

“I thought I told you to tone it down around the brat Hanji.” Levi stood over her with a scowl on his face and Hanji laughed, quickly getting to her feet while the rest of the group stared at the two with similar expressions of fear. Petra however stared with suspicion, which went unnoticed by everyone but Eren.

“Woops! Sorry, I forgot! It’s just that from all the birds I’ve observed from our travels I have never seen such tolerable behavior like this and it just amazes me how it can seemingly have emotions and have the concept of suspense, or rather teasing. So if I may ask again, albeit more held back, where did you get that parrot?” Hanji looked at Eren expectantly while Levi went back to leaning on the steering wheel. He noticed that all the others were also looking at him and Armin flew up onto his shoulder as he stuttered out a response.

“U-uh… h-he was a gift from my parents! I-I’ve had him so long I don’t even remember where we got him from.” He ended with a breathy chuckle and focused on smoothing out Armin’s chest feathers with a finger to avoid eye contact. Armin had said once that all his emotions were more vivid through his eyes.

“Hm… well, that’s a shame. I was really hoping to visit there one day! But he does look like any other parrot around here. Maybe I’ll buy one before we leave-“

“No way in hell Hanji,” Levi finally spoke up from his spot at the wheel and glowered at her from his spot. “You don’t need a pet that will bring more filth on this boat than you do. Besides, what would be the purpose of it?”

“It would be my friend!” she exclaimed, dramatically waving her hands. “A cute little fluff ball of joy that would follow me wherever I go! Almost like you, only you’re not as cute or joyful,” she smiled widely at him before speeding past and grabbing the railing with both hands, jumping up and flipping over before landing on the deck with her arms spread out on either side of her body. Eren stared in amazement at Hanji’s skills and heard Levi growl before Hanji called for Isabel to follow. “And bring Eren! I want to show him around!”

Isabel laughed and grabbed Erens right hand, spinning him around before dragging him down the steps and to the deck. Eren glanced around and saw that the other workers hadn’t minded Hanji’s little show, aside from a few younger ones who continued to stare in shock.

“Alrighty! So as you can see this is the deck with the masts and the bow and the stern and blah blah blah blah blah. The real stuff is _in_ the ship!” Hanji talked rapidly with waving hand gestures and Eren noticed Isabel bouncing on her toes next to him.

“Yeah yeah yeah but what about climbing the mast?” Isabel spoke like a child asking their parent for a toy. Hanji laughed and clapped a hand on Eren’s shoulder.

“That’s honestly the best part, so let’s save the best for last." Hanji glanced up at the stern before leaning in and whispering, "And let's keep that part a secret, 'kay? Now c’mon!” The woman turned and walked briskly towards the steps below the bow and Eren eyed the dark steps warily until Isabel squeezed his hand and gave him a reassuring look. Armin also gave an encouraging chirp and they walked down into the depths of the ship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm finding it hard to discipline myself enough to sit down and actually write these, but once you start it comes a little easier.  
> I'm thinking of updating once a month, I know it's shitty but I too am shitty and write as fast as a sloth ;_;  
> Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated! (u//o//u) ~ ♫


	11. Mast

Eren held Isabel’s hand and they walked down the steps, which led into a vast, low ceiling room with rows upon rows of barrels lining the walls. Bench tables were shoved against the barrels in rows as well with unlit candles bolted on to hold them down as the ship swayed. Light streamed in through cracks in the floorboards above and Eren could hear the heavy footsteps of the workers walking to and fro. At the back of the room was a wooden counter in front of a kitchen that was lit up and casting shadows from someone moving around inside. Hanji energetically skipped passed the tables and up to the counter, stopping with a bounce in her place.

“Hey you two! How’s the food situation?” Eren and Isabel approached slower than Hanji had with Isabel leading and Eren close behind. A man who was crouching on the ground stood and turned, brushing his hands on his trousers and sniffing the air. There was also a girl trying to push a tall crate into a blank space against the wall and jumped at Hanji’s enthusiastic voice.

The man was tall, very tall, and had dirty blond hair parted in the middle along with a thin mustache and blue eyes. The girl had reddish-brown hair and a piece of bread in her mouth as she stared at the three of them with wide brown eyes. She took the bread out of her mouth and swallowed before talking with a slightly nervous voice.

“It’s going okay... still a few crates we need to get in here but that’s about it, heh.” She took another bite out of her bread while the man looked curiously over at Eren.

“That’s great! Then you get a couple days to hit the town!” Hanji turned to the two behind her and gestured towards Eren. “This is Eren, Isabel’s friend, and Eren this is Mike and Sasha. They distribute and prepare the food on the ship and Sasha is Mike’s new apprentice.” Sasha had scarfed down the rest of the bread by now and swallowed before stepping forward and raising a hand that Eren shook.

“Nice to meet you Eren!” she said. “And who’s this on your shoulder?” Her gaze was directed towards Armin who seemed to be a good ice breaker for conversation.

“This is Armin, my best friend.” Armin chirped a hello and Sasha giggled. Eren noticed Mike come closer and thought they were going to shake hands as well, but instead the man stuck his nose in his hair and sniffed him, catching the boy off guard. He stood for a moment looking into Mike’s chest with a dumbfounded look and Mike stepped back with a smirk on his face that had Eren's face heating up.

Hanji bellowed out a laugh at Eren’s expression and Sasha was already giggling. “Hahaha! Don’t worry Eren, that’s just his way of saying hello!” Eren looked at her, embarrassed, and then smiled sheepishly up at Mike who was still smirking down at him. Isabel simply watched on, no longer holding Eren’s hand, with a pleased smile on her face.

“Oh and Isabel, Sasha is one of the new recruits we hired from Trost. Sasha, this is Isabel, my best friend and the Captain’s _little_ sister.” Hanji snickered as Isabel broke her crossed arms and glared at her.

“I am NOT little! I’m younger by like three years!” Isabel exclaimed with a pout, stomping her foot slightly and Eren had a hard time holding in a chuckle as Isabel did seem a lot like a child. Sasha had seemed to freeze in her spot, not knowing what to do seeing as she didn’t want to upset the Captain’s kin. Hanji noticed her stiff posture and scoffed.

“Don’t worry kid! Isabel’s nothing to be afraid of!” She grinned at Isabel as her face flushed with anger.

“I hate you,” she said in a low tone but Hanji just slung an arm over her shoulders.

“See? Such a cutie! But anyways, we're gonna go to the lower decks, show off the ship and such. Come on Eren, we’re gonna go visit the barracks. We’ll see you two later!” She called out to Mike and Sasha and Eren smiled at the two of them. Sasha smiled and gave a small wave in return before Eren followed the other two down a hatch that was next to the steps and led even deeper into the ship.

The barracks was another large but low room with hammocks hanging from the walls and the ceiling, swaying back and forth along with the ship. The floor also had a few pillows and blankets neatly folded between the hammocks. There were bags and packs scattered around the large room as well, probably people’s belongings already packed for departure in a few days. Behind the ladder that they climbed down, there was a wide space packed to the brim with barrels, crates and boxes tied down together to keep from rolling around aimlessly. Hanji described that area as the hull, which went farther back than Eren may have thought at first. At the end of the room, near the stern, there were two doors that lead into two different rooms that Hanji explained to be the Surgeons room holding medical supplies and where Petra stayed. The other room was Hanji's where she studied and researched the things she found in new places. She also explained that she shared a room with the quarter master when he was on board and Petra shared a room with Aurou so the other sailors would have more room in the barracks.

“So where does Mike and Sasha sleep?” Eren asked, although he should’ve guessed that they would sleep in the barracks.

“Mike has a little room to himself behind the kitchen, but Sasha has to sleep in the barracks with the rest of the recruits,” Hanji answered and Eren nodded in acknowledgement.

“So the… lower level sailors sleep in the barracks and the higher level ones have their own rooms?” Hanji nodded.

“Yep! It’s all really a matter of rank and also because the ship can only hold so many people.” Eren thought for a moment.

“So… where does Levi sleep?” He asked and Hanji got a wicked smirk on her face.

“Well, the area above Petra’s room and my room combined makes up the captain’s quarters.” She gave him an excited look. “Would you like to go see it?” Eren tilted his head.

"I would but... isn't there another deck to look at?" He asked.

"Eh, well the last deck is kinda depressing and it's not all that important anyway. Just more storage and the brig. _I'd_ rather go to Levi's room while we have the time, unless you don't want to?" Eren quickly shook his head.

"No I want to!" If the last deck wasn't all that important he wouldn't push to see it instead of the _Captain's_ room.

Hanji grinned. "Wonderful! Then let's go!" He thought he saw Isabel and Hanji share a look as they emerged from the ship and onto the deck but brushed it off as they got closer to the steps that led below the stern. At the end of the steps was a single door with two unlit lanterns on either side of it. The door was carved with decorations and was adorned with a small stained glass window that was pretty but not very transparent.

Hanji looked around them before opening the door and ushering the other two in. Eren softly gasped and heard Armin coo as they took in the room.

He should've known that Levi’s room was the biggest in the whole ship. The floor was glossy with polished wood, covered with a rectangular red and gold carpet adorned with elegant designs that covered the floor closets to the door. On the left wall was a large bookcase with stained glass and filled to the brim with books neatly lined against the shelves. To the left of that was a dresser with a bare surface and above it two cutlass swords crossed over each other, hanging from a frame. To the right of the bookshelf was a door that led to a washroom and in the middle of the room there was a large dark wood desk that had ink pens and paper neatly lined on it’s top. The back of the room, which was behind two drawn back and tied curtains, that would go the length of the room when untied, held a crowd of small boxlike windows connected together to make one large window, all of them clean and looking out upon the open ocean. In front of the windows was a large king sized canopy bed with red covers and black curtains that were drawn back and decorated with gold and scarlet trims and the wooden frame of the bed was made of stained black wood. Eren could barely see the corner of an open archway behind the drawn back curtain that led to a walk in closet to the left of the bed along with a simple couch with gold painted wood and the cushions a velvety red color. On the opposite side of that there was a wood table adorned with beautiful glass bottles assigned for different alcoholic drinks. Along the walls and on the desk there were many unlit candles once again bolted down but aside from that the walls were plain light brown oak wood, having no paintings or other decorations aside from the swords hanging on their frame.

Although the room was beautiful, it showed nothing personal from Levi’s life, and that made Eren a little disappointed. Levi wasn’t a friend exactly, well Eren didn't know what he was aside from a person he wanted to get to know. He wanted to know what he was thinking about behind his blank face. He had questions about the world that Levi had probably grown bored of from seeing it time and time again. And another part of him wanted to share what Levi couldn’t see, in the depths of the ocean. The dark places and the sunny ones. The underwater caves with low glowing crystals-

He jumped a little when Hanji nudged him in the side with her elbow.

“It’s grand isn’t it?” she asked. Eren placed a hand on his heart and found it beating erratically, whether from the scare or from his thoughts he didn’t know.

“Yeah it is… but…” His words trailed off and Hanji gave him a concerned look.

“What? What is it?”

“Well… it’s pretty but it’s also…”

“Empty.” Eren turned to Isabel who was looking around the room with sad eyes. Eren nodded. It was… empty. Eren felt Armin jump off his shoulder and watched him glide past the desk and onto the bed, from which he started rolling around on and Eren had to smile at the cute action.

He walked forward past the desk and to the window, looking at his home which at one point had felt suffocating. Now the ocean seemed like a time for release, a place to restore energy and become what he truly was. A place to run to. And- although he had seen the dangers of the sea many times- a safe place.

His freedom.

~o0o~

“You wanna do this with me?” Isabel asked while Eren looked up at one of the three huge masts in front of him, reaching towards the sky with the green flag waving peacefully in the wind on top.

“How do you get up there?” He asked. Isabel pointed to the nets on either side of the middle mast.

“We climb.”

“What if we fall?” Isabel rolled her eyes.

“We won’t?”

“But what if we do?”

“Eren there’s one thing I’ve learned in life that has helped me to get through tough situations and occasionally some dares.” She mumbled the last part quickly and turned, looking at him straight in the eye. “If you don’t try anything, you'll never do anything. I’ve tried to climb this before and I did it, and that’s why I know I can do it now.” Her eyes softened. “Besides, Hanji will be here ready to catch us if we fall. But, if you climb _believing_ you can do it, I guarantee you will.” They stared at each other for a moment while the boy thought over her words. He understood what she meant, if he had never tried going to the surface he wouldn't be here right now.

" _One two three go!_ " Isabel basically spit the words out before turning and racing up the netting and Eren stood there flabbergasted until Armin chittered next to him.

“See you at the top!” he stage whispered, jumping off his shoulder and starting to pound his wings, circling higher and higher against the wind. Eren’s eyes hardened in determination and he raced for the other net. He easily slipped out of his shoes and swung onto the netting, starting to climb in sure, swift movements. He was on the first pole just as Isabel had reached it and she watched with wide eyes as he jumped into the crow’s nest, grabbed a rope and started climbing to the next one, not daring to look down, only focusing on the goal that was the top.

Armin flew in circles as Eren got higher, eventually reaching the second pole but he didn’t stop. He kept climbing and eventually made it to the third pole on the very top of the mast, the flag waving but a few feet above him. He sat on the pole, one arm hooked around the main mast for balance as he looked on over the horizon. The sun was still high above the ocean but Eren knew it would be setting in the next few hours, then he would wait till night to go out and swim again.

Armin chirped a greeting as Isabel finally made it next to him, sitting on the opposite side of the main mast and holding it for balance as she looked around.

She punched Eren lightly on the shoulder with a laugh. “I told you you could do it! You climbed _way_ better than I did on my first try. How did you do that?” Eren briefly glanced at her and then closed his eyes, leaning his head against the main mast as the breeze hit his face.

“What you said… it’s like something my mother told me once,” he explained. Isabel’s smile was wiped away and was replaced by a worried frown as she watched his face. Had she said something wrong? “She used to say… if you don’t fight, you can’t win.” He opened his eyes again with a soft smile on his face, although his chest squeezed with emotion. He remembered exactly when she had told him that.

_“Muma?”_

_“Yes darling?”_

_“How did you know that daddy was the one you loved?”_

_“Oh… well you see, a long time ago a lot of mermen had wanted to be my mate.”_

_“So why did you choose daddy?”_

_“He won my heart.”_

_“You mean like… like fighting?”_

_“No baby. You see while the others_ did _fight for me, physically, your father caught me at the times I was alone and courted me. He fought for my love.”_

_“Ohhh…”_

_“One day, you’re going to have to fight for someone’s love as well.”_

_“What if I get hurt?”_

_“Well… that’s a part of love. Sometimes I’m hard on you, right?”_

_“Yeah…”_

_“But I still love you.”_

_“And I still love you muma.”_

_“You see? If you fight you are more likely than not to get hurt. But baby remember, if you don’t fight, you can’t win.”_

_“Okay muma.”_

_“Okay baby.”_

Eren’s eyes were brimming with tears but he didn’t let any escape. He missed his mother so much. And he had no one to blame, no one to seek out. No leads. They were just… gone. Without a goodbye. Armin rubbed his head against Eren’s hand. Armin hadn’t known what it was like to have parents, all he had was his grandfather, and Eren's parents for a short period. He knew his grandfather tried but there was always that gap between a loving parent and a guardian. Isabel watched him from her spot, eventually turning to look down at the crew, who didn’t actually know they were up there at the moment. Hanji had climbed to the first pole and was taking a nap in the crow’s nest knowing they made it to the top without falling and they would call when they needed her.

They sat for about an hour.

In that time Eren had let a few tears slip and Armin had gone to sit in Eren’s lap, Isabel was simply lost in thought. At one point she started thinking about how to get down since Hanji had fallen asleep in the crow’s nest and that even if she was awake, she couldn’t possibly handle their weight falling from this height. She didn’t worry over it too much, though she should’ve.

It was at that moment that she saw a group heading towards the ship, one man in particular caught her eye and she tried waving for them. Armin cocked a head at her and then down at the people she was waving to. In the time they had been up there he thought that Isabel had a sure plan on how to get down but just then realized that she had no idea. He knew they weren’t going to notice her unless she started screaming, which he wouldn’t prefer with Eren’s current mood, so he leapt off of Eren’s lap and glided down the mast and to the railing where he perched and squawked for their attention.

The group consisted of three males and a very short female, the girl and the more burly man were blonde and the tallest a brunette. The last male had light blondish hair and a dark undercut, who looked at Armin dumbfounded, grabbing the other’s attention.

“Hey guys, what’s up with that bird?” The other three humans turned to Armin who was hopping up and down chittering and squawking at them for their attention.

“You think he belongs to someone?” The larger blonde male asked, getting closer to Armin and sticking his hand out for him to jump on his arm, which he did.

“If someone lost their bird they really shouldn’t have one in the first place,” the blonde female stated, her face bored with the situation. Armin started getting aggravated and started talking.

“Up! _Squawk!_ Up!” He squawked, jumping around the man’s forearm. They still didn’t seem to understand so Armin tried something else. “Look! Look!” He then jumped off his arm and flew around the mast once, circling and then returning to the railing. The group had watched him and were staring between the mast and him.

“Something that has to do with the mast?”

“Up! Up!” The male with the undercut looked up and down the mast and suddenly saw what the parrot was looking at.

“ _Holy shit!_ There’s people up there!” Armin squawked in victory. “And their waving to us!”

“Help! _Squawk!_ Help!” Armin then flew off the railing and to the first pole, watching as the group quickly got on board and stared up at the mast and the two stranded at the top.

“Hey Reiner!” Isabel called. “Sorry we have to do this again, but I think my friend's a bit too scared to get down!”

“Why do you do these things?!” The large blonde called back and Armin heard Isabel’s laugh from above.

It was then that Eren realized how far up he really was, and how the boat’s swaying was amplified by their height. He gasped and held onto the main mast for dear life. Why had he thought this was a good idea? This was a terrible idea!

Armin decided then would be a good time to find Levi and Farlan and inform them that their housemates were in trouble. He jumped across the pole and jumped into the crow’s nest, jumping on Hanji’s chest to make her wake up. She awoke with a jolt, popping her head over the edge of the nest and peering down at the group.

“Ah… Hello Reiner, and friends!” She said cheerily but with a drowsy voice from her nap. Armin hopped up on the ledge as well.

“Hanji! Did you know Isabel was up there again?” Reiner asked, the male with the undercut next to him mumbling “again?” questionably under his breath.

“Ah well yes, I watched them go up,” she answered and Reiner grabbed his hair. “Why what’s wrong?”

“Isabel said the guy who’s up there with her is too scared to come down!” Reiner stated with a frustrated tone. Hanji made and small ‘o’ with her lips and turned to Armin next to her.

“Go up there and comfort him?” she asked and the four humans below watched in confusion and then surprise as Armin nodded his little beak and flew up to the third pole. Hanji got up and stood on the edge of the nest and Reiner had but a second to realize he had to catch her before she fell into his strong arms and he set her down, her patting him on the arm before crossing the deck to the steps leading to the captains quarters.

“I’m off to get Levi and Isabel’s husband, you guys work on getting them down!” She skipped off the ship with a cheery wave and started down the dock, leaving the group looking helplessly up at the two stuck at the top of the mast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey look! A 3000 word chapter! What's it doing all the way out here in the trash section of this fandom???  
> What will happen next? Will they come down? What will Levi think? All in the next episode of F*CK MY LIFE in the next two-four weeks! Thanks for watching.  
> Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated! \\(0//o//0)/ - !!!


	12. He Like's Me?

Eren squeezed the main mast pole to his chest, eyes open wide, unable to look away from the far away safety of the deck. 

“Eren! You’re never gonna get down if you just _sit_ here!” Armin whispered in his ear. Eren whined and squeezed the pole harder and Armin sighed frustratedly. “All you have to do is get to the last pole and the other humans will catch you!” Eren’s face flushed, now embarrassed that others he hadn’t even met were worried about him.

“Alright Eren,” Isabel spoke up from where she was sitting. “We’re gonna wrap this rope around your waist and just let it lower you down, no harm done, ‘kay?” Eren lifted his eyes but immediately closed him at the sight of the horizon tilting in the distance.

“I-I c-c-can’t…” he stuttered out. He was too scared. He was sure to die if he fell from this height and onto the deck. Hell he had a bigger chance of dying than not even if he landed in the _water._

“Eren… remember what I told you?” Isabel asked. Eren nodded his head.

“If y’don fight, ya can’t win…”

“No hun, if you don’t try you won’t _do._ ”

“Is there a difference?” Eren looked up at her with eyes filled with emotion. Isabel nodded.

“Yeah, there’s a huge difference. Now let go of the pole- not completely! Just so I can wrap this around you.” Eren watched her for a moment before leaning away from the pole. Isabel wrapped the rope around his torso and then he was grasping the pole again with less strength than before, finding that he didn’t immediately die after letting go.

“There we go, look you’re already loosening up! Now look, I know the guy down there, he’s caught me before and therefore Levi has a lot of respect for him,” at the mention of Levi’s name Eren wondered where he was. What he was doing? Probably not sitting at the tippy top of a ship like an idiot. Was he worried about him? Did he even know he was up here? Eren thought about what Levi would say if he were here instead of Isabel.

_“C’mon kid, just get it over with. The sooner you start moving, the sooner you’ll get down.”_

And he would leave it at that, Levi didn’t really talk all that much from what Eren had seen, and start climbing down easily. Which he found himself doing somehow, sliding down the main pole while Isabel held onto his rope from above to make sure if he fell she would catch him. When he got down to the first pole he unwrapped the rope from around his waist and let himself slide down the pole, one hand on the rope as Armin jumped and glided down with him.

“Good job Eren!” he cheered. The boy stared down at the group of humans that watched on from below. The male with the undercut had gone over to a couple barrels and laid back on them, his hands behind his head while the blonde girl leaned on the wall beside him. The tall brunette and the large blonde male were waiting with stiff shoulders.

Isabel was soon by his side on the mast and looked at him with a smile.

“I don’t know what got into you but whatever you were thinking about you’re really gonna need it for this part,” she said. Suddenly Eren wasn’t so sure of himself and held the pole next to him a little tighter. “Don’t worry Eren, Reiner is probably more worried about us than we are. He’ll catch us, watch.” She cleared her throat. “LOOK OUT BELOW!” She yelled and then pushed herself off with a whoop, flattening herself out and landing in Reiner’s arms bridal style, her giggling the whole way. He set her down and she gave him a hug before letting go and pointing up at Eren.

“Alright! We can catch up in a second, right now my friend is _kinda_ nervous and might break his leg if he does this wrong.”

“He shouldn’t have to do this in the first place!” He told her then looked back up to the brunette who was feeling small on his perch.

Armin brushed a wing against his arm. “Eren, I’ll go with you, okay?” Eren looked down at him with unsure eyes. “Just breathe Eren, take a chance.” Eren waited a moment to breathe, then nodded to Armin. He closed his eyes, pushing himself off the pole with Armin clutching onto his shoulder.

~o0o~

Levi took heavy steps down the dock. How could those two be so stupid as to get stuck on top of the fucking _mast?_ The very fucking top! Although he had done it before in his early years, how had Eren even managed to do it on the first try?!

While he was making last minute route adjustments with Eld, Hanji had come skipping up to him, with a shit eating grin on her face, making him think she had just made a grand discovery or something of the sorts. She had instead informed him that his little sister and… whatever Eren was, were on the very fucking top of his ship and didn’t know how to get down.

When he got to the port where his ship was docked however, he didn’t see his idiot sister and the brunette at the top. They were sitting at the bottom pole and Isabel had just jumped off. He rushed down the dock, not running but walking pretty swiftly. When he reached the top of the steps he was relieved to see Isabel standing safe and sound next to Reiner. What he wasn’t prepared for was the sight of Eren falling into the blonde man’s arms, eyes shut tight and shoulders hunched.

“Are you okay?” Reiner immediately asked, concern lacing his expression and voice. Eren finally looked up at him with his two big sparkling teal eyes, a blush covering his cheeks as Reiner… didn’t put him down. Eren’s face got redder as they held eye contact until he stuttered out a response.

“Y-yeah… ‘M fine…” He looked away, the blush on his cheeks darkening as Reiner finally put him down but still watched his face, looking for his eyes.

Armin perched onto Eren's shoulder and started nibbling on his ear, making the brunette’s eyes flicker up at the bird and pat his little head. Eren’s eyes caught Levi’s as he walked towards the group and soon all eyes were on him.

Levi glanced over at the blonde girl who pushed off her wall and the kid lying beside her stumbled to a standing position as he passed. Reiner and the tall brunette beside him stood straighter and saluted with their fists over their hearts. Eren seemed a little startled at the action while Isabel gave him a sheepish smile.

“Good Evening Captain!” The two men greeted. Levi ignored them and glared pointedly at Isabel.

“Heeeey big bro…”

Levi stopped a foot in front of her, crossing his arms and giving her a hard glare. “You have ten seconds. Go.”

“Alright so you see I had challenged Eren for a race and I guess I forgot to tell him but we were only supposed to go to the first pole but he just kept going. I didn’t want to tell him to _stop_ so we made it to the top and got stuck- OW!“

She was cut off from her rambling when Levi flicked her hard on the forehead. “I thought I told you the last time you climbed up that fucking thing to _never do it again_ ,” he said sternly. Isabel rubbed her forehead with a pout and Levi twisted his glare to Reiner.

“Did you encourage her?”

“No sir.” Was Reiner’s reply, and although he was unflinching Isabel still cut in.

“He had nothing to do with it, he just helped us down!” She defended, stepping in front of Reiner and waving her hands. Suddenly Eren stepped forward, wringing his wrists together nervously when Levi’s glare slipped over towards him.

“Um…” Eren had trouble holding eye contact, flicking back and forth between the ground and his face. “We’re... I’m sorry. I didn’t know we weren’t supposed to go up… we won’t do it again, so… forgive us?” The last bit came out as a question and Levi held Eren’s unsure and questioning eyes for a moment.

If these two were part of his crew they would be washing the deck for the next two weeks, but when Levi looked into Eren’s eyes he recognized the genuine guilt and worry. He knew he couldn’t bring himself to punish Eren even if he did work under him.  

Although he could think of a few ways to punish the brunette if he was underneath him.

…

…

Wait.

“Tch. Whatever. Come on you two, we’re going to go get something to eat.” And with that he firmly grasped onto one of Isabel’s low pigtails and dragged her across the deck, her whining along the way. Levi didn’t bother looking back to see if Eren was following. He really didn’t want to think of the brat at all after where his thoughts had just wandered.

When they got down to the boardwalk Levi let go of Isabel and marched on down the wooden boards. Fuck that kid, he thought. Fuck him and his stupid blue-green eyes and thin little arms and tan fucking skin. He didn’t need- he definitely didn’t _want_ the brat! He would be leaving soon, and then the little shit will be out of sight and out of mind.

Part of him, a very, very, _very_ small part,

didn’t believe that was true.

~o0o~

Eren watched Levi drag Isabel down the steps with wide eyes. He didn’t think Levi would let them off so easily. And apparently he wasn’t the only one.

The man that had been laying on the barrels walked over whistling, the blond girl following, and slapped a hand on Reiner’s shoulder.

“Phew! I thought you were a goner there Reiner!” Eren looked up to Reiner and locked eyes with him. He immediately looked instead at the human with the two toned hair but still felt Reiner’s eyes on him when he spoke.

“Yeah, I thought I was too.”

“Looks like the Captain’s got a new favorite,” the other said. Eren raised his eyes to the man and tilted his head.

“Favorite?”

“Y’know. Somone he let’s off easier than others cause he likes ya,” he said with slight disdain. Eren blinked at the human and then pointed a finger at himself.

“He likes me?”

“Sure he does Eren!” Isabel came up behind him, fixing her pigtail and then placing her hands on her hips. “He never would have let you off that easy if you had been anyone else. Hell, I thought he was going to have me clean all the floors five times over back home!” She smiled widely at him and then turned to the other four humans. “I believe we haven’t properly introduced you. This is Eren and his bird Armin. They’ll be living with me and Farlan for a bit. Eren this is Jean, Reiner, Bertholdt and Annie.” She pointed to each of the humans as she spoke.

Bertholdt was tall, very tall, and had dark blackish-brown hair, light blue eyes, and a worried but kind face. Annie had blond hair tied into a ponytail with her bangs hanging over her right eye. Her eyes were also light blue and she held a bored posture and expression in her short stature. Reiner, who hadn’t taken his eyes off Eren since he had caught him, had blond hair as well, hazel eyes and a strong build to go along with his height. The final male, Jean, had a previously mentioned two-toned undercut with the top part being of a lighter shade and the underpart a darker shade. His eyes were hazel in color and he leaned on Reiner’s shoulder with an elbow, posture lanky and smug and he looked down at Eren like the brunette was a bug under his foot.

“Jean is a new recruit Levi hired from Trost while in Maria, while Bertholdt, Annie and Reiner have been on the ship for about three years!” Isabel exclaimed. Eren gave a sheepish smile to the four.

“It’s nice to meet you,” he said lightly. Jean scoffed while the other three nodded in greeting.

“Where were you all headed before you ran into us?” Isabel asked. “I hope we didn’t make you late for something?”

“Actually, we were coming to see if you had come to the ship yet,” Reiner supplied. Isabel smiled widely and hooked her arm in Eren’s.

“Well since you came here for us we should go catch up some! I’m sure Levi won’t mind a few extras at dinner.”

“Are you sure?” Bertholdt asked. “I think the captain’s mad enough as it is. We shouldn’t risk aggravating him further...” Isabel waved him off.

“Levi might have celebrated last night with the crew but _I_ haven’t gotten the chance to catch up with _anyone_! It’s _completely_ unfair! I don’t care how angry my bro is, another party is in order. Let us be off!” And with that she started strutting off, hooked to Eren by their interlinked arms and he stumbled to match her pace. Armin watched over Eren’s shoulder as the other four sailors looked to each other and then followed her lead, Reiner shaking his head with a smile and Jean rolling his eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry these are coming out sower, I've been writing more actually just need a few more chapters ahead maybe then we'll get back on track to every 2 weeks :P
> 
> You like? LET ME KNOW! I eat your admiration as fuel to write!!! (it also makes me guilty so I write more, I swear it works just a lil comment cmon)  
> Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated! ~(o//W//o)~ - squid


	13. Diamond In The Rough

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long I've been doing... so much drawing... its not gud for my back. I have two things, drawing and writing (and singing but I don't do that professionally) and I also have a second fanfiction about... MLP (DON'T JUDGE ME IM A DAMN GUD WRITER AND DRAWER) that has been neglected for MONTHS. And I feel bad because it's something that still inspires me I just can't get passed this one part. Like... where do I go from here.... anyway, this one's a goodie :3

A group of seven, to Levi’s distaste, seated themselves at one of the long wood bench tables in the warm, homey pub sported in downtown Sina.

Levi held his tongue when Isabel said that three of his crew would be joining them for dinner. He was a little angry at himself for the reason why he felt he needed to speak out in the first place. From the moment Isabel and her mini army had caught up to Levi and Farlan to the time they sat down and started ordering food, Reiner had been staring at Eren like a starving wolf who just found a juicy caribou. Petra, Erd, Gunther, and Aurou departed soon after they finished with the last few details on the course to Kingdom Rose, not willing to become as drunk and hungover as the day before.

It was a particularly cheery night, not as cheery as fourty or so sailors running around drunk and laughing like before at that old bar. The bar was closest to the docks and everyone was too tired to go looking for a better establishment.

[[X]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXiZGoeUUO4) The musicians were playing merrily and men and women drank and danced jubilantly while Levi’s little group ate and chatted in a similar state of spirits. Isabel asked question after question about their expeditions while Reiner conveyed detailed answers. Bertholdt chimed in a few times, Annie sat quietly, Jean ordered drink after drink with nothing to say having only been on the ship barely three weeks and Eren ate and listened intently, also asking a few questions that anyone else would have found as obvious conclusions.

“What does a canon do?

“What’s rope made from?”

“What are rations?”

“What’s this?”

“What’s that?”

Jean snapped at him at every other one of his senseless questions with answers that should have made Eren feel stupid, but all the brunet could show was surprise and interest and Levi was getting aggravated at the heat in his chest when Jean talked to him so disrespectfully. Levi didn’t miss Eren sneaking a few bread pieces to the bird on his lap who popped his head up from time to time to watch the other humans with something in its eyes that Levi could only call interest. It was like the feathered creature was _listening_ to the damn conversation which bantered back and forth and changed subjects so often that Levi lost all interest a few minutes into it.

Soon enough their food came and some of the pigs started talking with their mouths open while they laughed about inside jokes and terribly communicated stories. Levi sipped idly from his tea with one cheek in his hand and looked around the tavern as the group suddenly burst into laughter and hurt his eardrums. He was considering the pros and cons of simply leaving to go back to the ship or anywhere other than this loud as fuck pub when Eren slid in front of him on the other side of the bench table.

He did it shyly and in one slow motion but eventually he was sitting across from him and was staring down into his lap, playing with his fingers. Levi looked over towards their group and saw Armin jumping around, on top of and between the people who laughed and squealed at his little birdie antics.

Levi looked back towards Eren and they locked eyes for a split second before the brunette looked away again. Levi raised an eyebrow at the teal eyed boy once he looked back up at him through his bangs and he seemed to breathe for a second before shooting him a small smile.

“Hey…”

Levi stared at him blankly.

“Kid, do you need something?”

Eren started scratching the wood on the table nervously and Levi’s eyes were drawn to his fingers.

“Well I was just wondering… are you feeling lonely over here?” Levi raised both his eyebrows at the boy and Eren seemed to take it as a silent question. “I-I mean everyone else is talking and eating and well… I just noticed I haven’t seen you eat anything since I met you and-“

“Brat, you really don’t need to worry about when I do and don’t eat.” Levi cut him off and Eren’s eyes widened before he looked back down in his lap in rejected embarrassed. Levi cursed the way his gut twisted from the redness in the brunettes face. “But lonely wouldn’t be the word for how I feel right now.” The boy lifted his emerald gaze curiously but there was still a bit of caution in his eyes.

“Well… how _are_ you feeling then?” He asked quietly and Levi took another sip of his tea before answering him.

“Bored as all hell.” Eren tilted his head at him in that cute as fuck way that made his eye’s shimmer in the table’s candlelight and Levi was taken back to that morning when he had given the boy that nice massage. The way his tan skin melded under his calloused fingers. How the boy's back thrummed when he hummed in appreciation. The tickles of his fluffy hair when he moved up the smooth skin of his soft neck…

“Well… if I’m being honest I’m feeling a little smothered. Armin's distracting them for a bit ‘cause he knew I needed a break.” Levi snapped out of his trance at the boy's voice and realized he had been staring at the brunette’s prominent neck and collarbones. Not a single blemish, no matter where he looked, and the raven was getting annoyed with… well with this whole situation to be honest.  

Maybe it was the years at sea or the months of deprivation from human contact while sailing to Sina, but he wanted to bite that neck. He wanted to mark him and light a lustful fire in those bright eyes. He could imagine him underneath him, red face twisted and eyes filled with pleasure. He wanted to show this boy exactly what reality is and dirty his mind and his body and he hated himself for it. Why couldn't he just let one person be happy and ignorant? He was never going to see Eren again in a few days, so all he had to do was wait.

Apparently his mouth didn’t agree with his brain.

“You wanna get out of here?” What? What did he just say? Did he really just invite the brat he and the blonde giant have been eyeballing all night to leave the pub to god knew where?

The brunette was quietly staring at Levi’s chest before he looked over at the group and then back to him and nodded, smiling a little as well. Levi blamed his lack of composure on exhaustion, on anything else but the fact that his body liked the kid more than his mind did.

The raven glanced over at the group and found the brat’s bird sitting atop Reiner’s head, sinking its tiny claws into his hair as it craned its neck to peer into the blonde’s eyes while the others around him laughed, Hanji even fell out of her chair. He took the distracting display as a chance to slip away and swallowed the rest of his tea before grabbing his tricorne and slipping out of his seat. He didn’t wait for Eren to catch up as he discreetly slipped through the beige swinging wood doors but heard the doors open and close again as an indication that he had followed and took long strides down the cobble path to the rocky streets.

[[X]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L78MLfAR-Ls) When he glanced over his shoulder Eren was actually very close behind him with both hands wrapped around his key necklace and looking around with a nervous and partially scared glint in his eyes. Levi suddenly felt guilty, lord knew why. He hadn’t done anything to scare the kid. But maybe it wasn’t him. It was considerably dark now with the sun completely submerged beneath the horizon and the stars beginning to sparkle one by one in the pitch black sky. The ocean breeze was washing over the town and the idiot hadn’t brought a cloak with him. Did he even have a cloak?

“Tch.” Levi shrugged off his cloak when the brunette’s teeth started to chatter, draping it over his shoulders as his eye’s widened and he looked at the raven nervously. “Don’t look so damn constipated. We’re just going to the beach since you love it so much.” Levi felt his pulse quicken when Eren’s face flushed and he pulled the cloak tighter around himself before he turned away with a scoff and headed down the lantern lit street.

He felt a little vulnerable without his cloak to hide his weapons, which he never went anywhere without, but somehow he felt rather pleased that his small sacrifice left the brat warmer, and when he glanced back at the kid again he still looked nervous but he looked much more… comfortable than before. At the very least he didn’t look so scared and that settled well with him.

Late night roaming couples held and giggled and nuzzled each other as they walked down the cobble streets with linked arms. Levi would have scowled at the over affectionate display if he had felt more alone. But now Eren was walking by his side instead of behind him so Levi had a better view of his face, which shifted emotions from curious to surprise and sometimes formed into awe, a small, content smile residing on his face all throughout. He might’ve felt a bit colder tonight but he certainly didn’t feel as lonely.

The trip was made in silence as they made their way out of town and down to the docks. The small waves looked like black ink lapping along the shadowed beach and hitting against the wooden poles as a full moon and hundreds of thousands of stars began to peek above the horizon.

Eren plopped down on the end of the dock and hung his feet over the edge, unafraid of the black abyss that splashed at his boots. Levi leaned against a wood pole, lighting the lantern that hung from it and illuminating Eren’s suddenly joyfully face as he kicked at the water with the tips of his boots. He stared at the water with nothing but positivity and the raven noticed how the kid seemed completely at ease and in his element when around the ocean. Just like the day before when he had gone swimming and Levi watched him through the corner of his eye as he played and splashed with his brother-in-law like an otter Hanji had pointed out once on their travels.

“Do you have some kind of fetish for the ocean or something?” Eren’s eyes flickered up to him, looking more like gold in the light of the lantern.

“A fetish?”

“Is there any particular reason you light up like a poor man with money when you get near it?”

Suddenly, the brunettes shoulders tensed and he lets his eyes stray from Levi’s gaze.

“I just… I grew up on the ocean....” He halfheartedly tugs the thick cloak tighter around his shoulders and Levi rubbed his arms. He had to remember, through his lustful mind, that Eren was still hiding something. Personal or not, it was important enough to lie about his past for.

“Do you know me?” He asked, his voice tight. He saw Eren look up at him in his peripheral and cleared his face of emotion before meeting the boy’s eyes. The kids head was tilted again.

“Do you know who I am?” Eren stared at him for a moment before turning back towards the sea and started playing with his hands.

“Um… You’re name is Levi, you have a ship, you’re a captain…” He started tracing his key with a finger. “You have a crew and drink tea and don't eat and…” He thought for a moment before snapping his fingers and looking back up to meet Levi’s gunmetal eyes. “You like to read!” His face split into a goofy grin like his answer was the expected one and the smile looked so genuine that Levi let the topic go with a roll of his eyes and a scoff.

“We need to get you your own cloak. I'm freezing my ass off out here,” he mumbled. He leaned his chin into his hand as he leaned back on the pole with a shiver.

“Oh... I’m sorry. If you want it back-” Eren started to slip the cloak off but Levi leaned down and touched his shoulder to stop him.

“Stop trying to give it back. It’s fine for tonight kid. Just remind me to tell Isabel to get you your own.” Eren’s face grew guilty as he shrugged the cloak back on and hunched into it.

The brunette watched the water before pulling out his satchel and digging through it. Levi watched him pull something out of it in the corner of his eye and heard clinking as he held the items against his chest.

“I don't really know how money works around here… but I wanted to repay Isabel for taking me in.” He held the items out and Levi’s eyes widened at what he held. “Do you think this will be enough?”

Levi felt his mouth fall open as he slowly pulled his chin out of his hand and picked up the two pieces of metal that Eren held in his hand. Two coins. Two _thick as fuck coins_ , one with a gold shine and another silvery and from the design it looked like they were old as fuck, so they had to be pure.

Levi remembered seeing coins like these in piles from his younger years. The memories of canon fire and bloodied cutlasses flashed through his thoughts as he watched the coins glint in the lantern’s low fire light. He squeezed the coins in a fist and tightly shut his eyes, gritting his teeth as that terrible part of his life started to resurface.

Where the fuck did he get these?

The raven turned his sharp glare to the boy who was still staring up at him, now nervously, as Levi struggled to hold in his panicked anger.

“Where did you fucking find these?” he asked, it coming out harsher than he had intended and Eren’s breath caught in his throat as he broke eye contact again and hid his eyes behind his bangs.

“A while ago I went swimming and dug them up… are they worth anything?”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Eren’s eyes snapped back up to him, now filled with apprehension and Levi groaned with exasperation at the kid’s unnecessary fear that made him feel the need to reassure him. “Kid, these are fucking _priceless_. Isabel will be able to live comfortably for a _long god damn while_ if she sells them or even melts them down for smaller coins. I’m just surprised you found them at all…” He switched his gaze from the coins back to the green-eyed boy who looked no longer anxious and instead held a small smile as he looked up at him. “So yeah, I’d say they’re fucking worth something.”

“I’m glad… She’s done a lot for me... I’m happy I could do something for her after everything.” The brunette smiled happily and looked back down at the water while Levi looked down at the coins again, flipping the gold one and smirking at the way it clinked and then spun in the air only to land back in his palm. He hadn’t seen gold like this in a god damn _while._ And while the memories weren’t his fondest, or unfortunately his worst, he still remembered the thrill of sailing away from a robbed ship, his cabin decorated with gold in all forms. He remembered flaunting it off to women and men he happened to meet ashore and luring them into his bed with its wealthy promises.

Usually when he came ashore he would do just that. His new job may not be the same but it didn’t pay trivially, but this time he had too much damn work to even think of picking up a wench or sozzled lad off the streets. There was that, and then there was this brat that he supposedly had affection for. Levi was no liar, and he especially didn’t lie to himself. The brunette wedged himself into his family effortlessly. His laugh was gold, his eyes could bout with some of the most beautiful women in the east, and damn if he ever felt skin or hair so soft. He didn’t even know how that was possible, his skin had absolutely no imperfections from where he could see, and his hair was like feathers against his hands.

All this from one stupid offer.

He was like a diamond in the rough, a motto he also learned from the east, a piece of gold in the sand. Too bad he was hiding something. Anyone with secrets has done something they regret and while he wanted to find out, to protect his family, it didn’t seem to bother Eren during his daily activities, just when his past was addressed. Maybe he was trying to get over it? Restart somewhere new?

“How did you do that?!” Levi didn’t realize that while he was thinking he just kept flipping the coin until Eren looked over and saw the action.

“What, this?” He flipped the coin once more and Eren followed it with his eyes until it landed back in his palm and nodded quickly. Levi smirked and flipped the coin across his knuckles. “Just a trick I learned a long time ago.”

“Could you teach me how to do that?” Levi flipped the coin once more and when it landed in his palm he twisted his hand and hid it up his sleeve, showing Eren his empty palm and the boy gasped, his eyes a little panicked. “Wah-where-?” The raven quickly bent down and reached behind the kids’ ear, purposefully brushing his knuckle against his hair, before pulling back and revealing the gold coin. The brunette gasped again, slightly flustered, and stared at the coin with awe before taking it and turning it around to peer at it. He laughed. “How?” He asked incredulously.

“A magician never reveals his secrets.” That was something his uncle had always said until one day younger Levi threw a dagger damn close to his head and demanded he show him how. Like hell if he wasn’t going to be as stubborn, Isabel knew that well enough by now. She still couldn’t get Levi to talk, in all the years they’ve known each other.

Speaking of Isabel, she would be wondering where they had gone off to by now. And the bird, who apparently had its own feelings and intelligence, would be getting rather distressed what with having to entertain people alone for so long. Levi reached a hand down for Eren to take.

“We should be getting back to the house.” Eren looked between Levi and his hand before hesitantly reaching up and taking it, allowing Levi to help him stand. Before Eren pulls away, Levi turns their hands over and places the other coin in the boy’s palm, closing the boy’s fingers around it. Levi looked up at Eren through his fringe and smirked at the boy’s flustered expression. “Before someone sends a search party.” Levi pulls his hands away and slips them into his pockets after taking a step back, turning and start walking down the dock. He was halfway down the wooden boards before he heard Eren start walking along behind him.

 _Jesus_ what was he _doing._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is he...? Is he flirting? 0w0  
> You like? Let me know! Last time I got a bunch of nice comments I wrote chapter 14 and half of 15... I think (0//w//^) ~ <3


	14. Moonsong

Eren groggily awoke to the feeling of his hair being pulled on the back of his head. He became aware of tiny claws digging into his back and a wet pool under his cheek from where he had drooled during what was supposed to be a nap before they went and got their fill of the ocean.

After the little get away spent at the dock, Levi and Eren had returned to the house in time to see Hanji and Isabel giggling on the floor of the living room, Hanji waving around a flask of alcohol and blushing intensely as they laughed over something one of them said. Farlan had been leaning on the doorway frame with a slumped Armin on his shoulder, looking down at them with an exasperated expression. When Armin had seen him he jumped off the blondes shoulder and right into his arms and Eren placed him on his shoulder, whispering an apology before feeling Hanji suddenly start pawing at his leg on the floor. Eventually Levi got a hold of her and took her to the kitchen for some water and he sat with an absolutely beyond intoxicated Isabel sitting in a very amused Farlan's lap.

Overall it had been an exciting night.

He sat up and wiped his mouth of drool on his night shirt sleeve before looking down at the wet pillow with bleary contemplation.

“Just turn it over and let’s go!” Armin tried to whisper but it was hard with his bird like voice. Eren did as he was told and opened the window behind the bed to its highest setting. They had decided that since Levi had a hard time sleeping and would basically be guarding the front door, that they would leave through they’re small window in their own room to avoid questioning. It would be a tight fit, but it would work. It _had_ to work. Tonight especially.

Armin went first, flying out the window basically without a sound aside from a few quick flaps and the faint rustling of a tree that he landed on outside. Eren stuck his feet out first and slowly pushed his way out of the window, sucking in his stomach and lightly hitting his head on the frame before finally getting all the way out and on the ground, safe and sound.

He heard Armin jump off the tree branch a little ways away and swiftly land on his shoulder, then they started walking into the woods, the opposite way from the front door so as not to make any noise trying to get over to the cobble path. They couldn't risk Eren stepping on leaves and sticks and chancing Levi seeing them through the windows. It wasn’t like they needed a path to follow anyway, they could _feel_ which way the ocean was.

Eren tip toed through the woods, using his ring to light the way. It was a dim light so as not to attract any attention but still make their way through the trees. Although it wasn’t required. Tonight was a full moon and it’s glow lit up the forest to a dark blue hue. As they neared the tree line they felt the ocean before they saw it as they were hit with a cool breeze carrying the smell of salt and the sounds of water crashing against rocks with it. Eren followed the wind and the pull in his chest until he reached the never ending expanse of water itself, a brighter, bluer hue than the previous pitch black it had taken earlier, and sparkling under the moon’s white glare.

Eren didn’t bother looking around the beach when he departed from the trees, the moon taking up all his vision as he walked ever closer to the water. The waves washed over the glittering sand, creating foamy bubbles as it withdrew and repeated the process. It swept over Eren’s feet as he walked into the water and when it was waist high he dived down and let the sea consume the blinding light that reshaped his legs into a shimmering tail.

And then he was gone.

Beating his tail, he swam far out into the bay, right underneath the water’s surface and sometimes popping his face up to see its radiance truly, for the first time.

As well with the sun, Eren had never before seen the moon at its best. Always under churning waters, it’s song was muffled. He knew as he flew out of the water and dived back down again, swimming down deep in a twirling dance of fins and scales that thas was not how mermaids were supposed to live. The moon felt cool, it somehow sang to him. He did not know if it was because he was a siren or if it was a part of his species, but he wanted to sing. He hadn’t sung since his parents had finally been declared as missing or dead and they had given up the search. He remembered how he and his mother would spin around each other, barely a few feet below the water’s surface, and laugh like they were drugged while singing in perfect harmony. Her tail became a violet shade, her eyes becoming molten gold. He never knew why her tail and eyes changed when they sang.

 _“It’s in our souls,”_ she said once when he had asked. _“To show how we feel, through body, through speech, through song. I’ll tell you more when you’re older.”_   But she never got the chance.

[[X]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxTghSZupv8) Eren didn’t think about the consequences and the next time he breached the surface he pushed himself atop a long, smooth rock to lounge his large tail on and began to sing long low notes that the moon's song melded around perfectly. He swept his tail across the waters surface and pushed his upper body up on his hands to sing the notes delicately, not noticing the second voice joining in just as carefully from below him.

Eren couldn't have cared less in that moment of the other figure in the water and didn't hesitate to slip off his rock and begin dancing fluidly with the new character. He didn't doubt his actions for a second when they began twirling under the moonlight or felt the least bit of fear when they coiled their tails accidentally and laughed like idiots. He certainly felt no worries when they breached the surface together, threw their heads back and serenaded the last notes of the lullaby while swimming in a lazy circle around each other. That wasn't the only song they sang. Well into the night, unconcerned about the time, they harmonized together, song after song and slowly the moon left its throne in the sky and began to near the surface of the lightening horizon. A wind that blew against their faces seemed to bring them back to reality, though Eren was still dazed from the euphoric night, and they turned to each other in the waters of the bay.

Eren stared at them, right into her eyes. It was a she, somehow he knew that. He wasn’t really taking anything in, hypnotized by the ice blue that stared right back at him. Her face was kind of lit up in a goldish color, why is that?

“Thank you,” she said, and then she turned and left.

~o0o~

When Eren became conscious again, he was very wet. _Very_ wet. In the water. _He was still in the water._ He snapped his head up only to wrench it back in pain as it collided with heavy wooden boards. The dock? He must have hidden himself under the dock to sleep, thick netting draping either side of the wooden boards and hiding his bright teal tail from view. Well at least he wasn’t a complete idiot. He did a self-check, and aside from the ache in his head he had a long, thin cut along the length of his tail and he was absolutely exhausted. The cut he suspected was from one of the hooks just floating around in the water connected to the netting. He must have swam all night because his arms and back were slightly aching.

Wait…

All night?!

He wavered out into the water and peeked his head from under the dock to look around. Luckily it was still dark, but the clouds were beginning to flare with the first lights of dawn and the moon was absent. Eren glanced around before deeming it safe enough to slide out into the water without being seen and started swimming as fast as he could out into the middle of the bay, where he broke the surface and looked around for the path back to Isabel’s house.

He couldn’t see anything. The shore and mountains far off were covered in mist and fog and Eren felt his heart beat growing erratic. He clasped his hands around his key and suddenly felt the ring on his finger. It had to be fully charged after the full moon right? But he didn’t know how to use it!

Eren let out a frustrated shout which echoed around the bay and ended with him curling up in the water, his face in his hands. Armin was the one that knew all the ancient spells, Eren just hung on to it because it was a gift from his father. Suddenly the water was cold, the air was cold, everything was lonely and cold. Where was Armin? Where had he gone when Eren started his moonsong? Did his voice have any bad effects on the humans?

What was he going to do?

“Please…” Eren left one hand covering his face as he looked down at the ring. “I want to go home…” The ring sat dormant and Eren was about ready to start bawling when suddenly it lit up and shone a string of light in the direction of land. Eren gasped and wiped his eyes before diving down and swimming in the direction it pointed. The light shone bright even under the murky water and led him to an absent piece of beach that he used to push himself out of the water and transform on. When he changed he was still in his night clothes and wrapped one arm around himself for warmth. He lifted his hand to lead the way but when he tried to walk he found himself hissing in pain and leaning on his left foot. When he lifted his pant leg the cut was there, still not at all deep but very long and stung, creating small dots of red going down his pants.

How was he going to explain this? He couldn’t think of that now however when the light on the ring started to flicker, like it was about ready to turn off again and Eren hurriedly started running through the forest which he vaguely recognized as the way he and Armin had come when leaving the house last night. His assumptions were correct when the tree line broke open and revealed the house itself and Eren almost cried with relief when he saw Armin sitting on the window sill looking out forlornly. When he got closer he saw he was shivering.

“Armin!” Eren whisper shouted and Armin’s little head flies up before he jumped off the sill and into Eren’s arms. Eren gently held his shaking friend, shushing him when he started to chirp and chitter too loud. “Armin I’m so sorry I just got caught up in the song a-and it felt good i-it’s a siren thing-“

“I’m just glad you’re alive you jerk!” Armin’s makes little sniffing noises through his nose holes and Eren is about to break down in tears. Though he would rather do that with his face shoved in a warm pillow than out in the cold and sitting in the dirt.

Eren pulled Armin away from his chest, the little bird clawing at his shirt the whole time, and gently dropped him inside the window and onto the bed then continued to pull himself in. He rolled onto the bed headfirst and then fell back, his head hitting the pillows that felt like clouds compared to the rocks he’d slept on that night.

Armin started running all over his body, checking him over with short trills and clicks but overall staying quiet. When Eren was beginning to feel sleep once again take him he took off his ring and leaned over to put it in his satchel but realized it was still glowing. Armin had climbed up onto his left shoulder, his talons digging into his clothes and skin so tight he knew he would need to rip him off if he wanted him to move, and looked down at it in silence.

“What is it doing?” he asked quietly.

“I asked it to take me home,” he moved the ring around but it stayed pointing towards the door. “And it took me here…”

“It must not think you’re home yet,” Armin said and Eren glanced at him. He was so tired… but he could maybe peek out of the hallway to see if it went anywhere, which he did. Tip toeing towards the door he gently twisted the handle. Suddenly the light turned off and when he opened the door…

Levi stared back at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The weeks go by too fast oml ;n;  
> But I've been writing! Like actually! Yay~  
> I only have about two chapters left until I'm out of shit to upload though mah dudes QnQ but I'm tryin >:Z
> 
> Just realised how short this was... yikes  
> But ooooooo boii its gettin guuud :D  
> I swear there's a justified and reasonably reasonable reason why he's there...
> 
>  
> 
> trololololololololol  
> pls comment ily


	15. Nightmares

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All Levi's POV, after they got home from the dock and before Eren did his thang~

Levi sat down in his chair heavily, Hanji throwing down her empty drink and her whole body following the motion. She was beyond drunk, beyond wasted, with one eyelid lowered farther than the other as she stared at Levi playfully across the kitchen table. Levi pushed another tall cup of cold water towards her and she almost knocked it over in her efforts to pick it up and drink it but managed to drink the whole thing before putting it down with a large gasp and then a loud burp.

And he wondered why Isabel couldn’t be a lady.

The culprit was sitting right in front of him.

He sipped some of his own water, washing down the aftertaste of the weak beer he had a pint of.

“Y’know…" Hanji said as she waved her empty cup around. "You are suuuuuch… a JERK.” She slammed the poor mug on the table and Levi scowled at her.

“Oh really?” He asked sarcastically.

“YES REALLY! You _left us!_ And took the cutie with the _BOOTY_ with you!” Hanji’s voice grew and lowered with her need for emphasis. “Why did you take him _anyway?_ He finally grow on you?” The woman squished her face between her fists and gave him a cheeky, pinched smile. Levi was at first amused at her stupid, drunk larks then upwards the twitch of his lips disappeared and he started glaring at that stupid, drunk face.

“He talked to me first, saying he felt smothered and I didn’t want to be there either so I offered to leave with him and we did. That’s it.”

“Then why did he have your _cloooooak oooooon_?” Hanji sung the last bit and Levi scowled.

“He was fucking cold, why the hell else?”

“Maybe because you _liiiike hiiiiim_ ,” the woman sang and kept humming and then started giggling hysterically when Levi didn’t immediately disagree.

“Tch. Shut up shitty goggles. You’re fucking drunk.”

“THAT IS THE TRUTH!” Hanji picks up and slams the cup twice down on the table. Levi was surprised it hadn’t cracked by now. Hanji was a strong woman. “But another truth is that you’re _hiding something from meeee!_ And _that_ isn’t going to end well!”

“How would you know if I’m hiding something you shit?”

“Well for one…” Hanji leaned her head on her palm and cleared her throat. “You haven’t disagreed with any of my… whatever the fuck it’s called.” She rubbed her eyes with her forefinger and thumb with tiring movements. “AND,” she swung her head up suddenly and pointed her finger towards the sky, though her eyes were still closed. “I know your mood swings.”

“What the fuck?” Levi breathed as he got up and took their cups to the sink to be washed later. He leaned on the counter to stare at Hanji like she was an idiot. “How does being nice to the brat lead to me acting differently?”

“Well for one you’re being nice,” she turned in her seat to stare at him, the candle on the table behind her casting a shadow all over her facial features. “And another thing is you’re admitting it.”

Fuck, she was right. Levi wasn’t one to lie, even if he did Hanji would see right through it. That’s why he hasn’t disagreed to anything she’s said, and he hadn’t just left the room either because he felt yeah, he probably should talk to someone about this. Who else better for the job than his first mate?

“And it’s really weird you’re swooning over someone you just met. You have like _major_ trust issues.”

“I feel so respected right now," the raven sneered. There was also the fact that she was probably drunk enough to forget everything tonight as well. If not from the alcohol than from his fist. Though Hanji could probably last a bit before he finally knocked her out. Like said before, Hanji is a strong woman.

Said woman looks back to the candle and squishes her face in her fists again. “You liiiiike hiiiim,” she sings with a shoulder wiggle and Levi is just about done with her drunk ass.

“I tolerate him.”

“There’s nothing to tolerate. That ass is perfect.”

 Levi took a second to picture that ass and agree that yes, it was quite perfect.

“Hah! You thought of it just now~!”

“Thought of what just now?” Isabel asked, standing in the archway with a raised brow in question. Levi saw Hanji open her mouth to start spewing shit so he cut her off quickly.

“Erwin without his eyebrows.” It was the first thing he could think of, and honestly, he had thought about it before. It was actually pretty nerve wracking to think of that blonde giant without his pet caterpillars.

Isabel snorted and walked over to the kettle. “Drunk babble is best babble,” she said as she started a fire under the stove and took out the cocoa powder.

Hanji gives him a knowing look and he scowls at her.

“Watchya makin bacon?” Hanji asks innocently.

“Hot chocolate before Eren goes to bed. He loves the stuff.”

“Probably because you haven't given him anything else,” Levi says with a roll of the eyes. Isabel hums in disappointed agreement.

“We’ll have to introduce him to more things then.”

“You know he’s not your kid, right? He’s an adult even,” Levi chastised. The raven missed the tensing of Isabel's shoulders and the stumble in her movements. When Levi didn’t get a response he looked at the her with a raised eyebrow and Isabel’s face cleared before she huffed a little laugh.

“Yeah, I know. I’ve heard his ass is quite perfect.” Levi kind of froze at her words, his bored stare stuck on a spot on the wall as Isabel walked past them with her two hot chocolates.

“Levi could you bring the third one out? Thanks!” Isabel called over her shoulder as she went back into the living room. Levi glared at Hanji when she started snickering which turned into high giggling and he smacked her over her drunk head to give her a headache and shut up before grabbing the last hot chocolate and bringing it out.

 _Coincidentally,_ Eren was the one without a chocolate. He stands in the doorway for a second staring at the boy sitting in one of the velvet chairs, his legs crossed while staring at Isabel and Farlan as they shared a story from their past. The couple had moved the coffee table so Isabel could sit in Farlan’s lap, not in the chair but in front of it and on top of a wool blanket to make Farlan’s ass more comfortable.

Isabel was just getting settled back into Farlan’s lap so Levi strutted over and lowered the hot chocolate by the rim to the brunet in the chair. Eren seemed surprised when he looked up at him but then he smiled and said thanks before taking the cup by the sides and blowing on the liquid.

He was cute.

Levi sighed heavily on his way out.

He peeked into the kitchen to see Hanji half asleep and hiccuping at the table so he kept going down the hallway and into his room closet to grab some blankets for her to sleep on the couch with. He set the blankets up, ignoring the other three in the living room as he did so, then went into the kitchen to coax the drunk woman into his arms and carry her to the makeshift bed. Hanji was pretty tall and heavy due to muscle, but Levi had an easier time than not carrying her into the living room.

Isabel was giggling hysterically when he got to the living room with Farlan tickling her mercilessly and Eren unable to stop his smile at their tricks. The boy’s face molded into awe when he saw Levi walk in casually with a grown woman almost asleep in his arms and tuck her under the covers delicately. When Levi finished putting Hanji to bed he looked up to find Eren peeking around the velvet chair watching him he smirks, making the boy blush and hide behind his chair again. Farlan thanks him on his way out since now he didn’t have to do it and Levi replies with a short nod.

The raven retreated to his room then, exhausted from the day and started doing paperwork on his small desk. It’s about a half hour later he hears Eren’s door open and close across the hall, assuming he went to bed. The act makes Levi think about the brunet, but he distracts himself with work before the thread of thought can go far. An hour later he stops with work and decides to read on his bed for a bit and before he knows it, he’s fallen asleep.

~o0o~

There's screaming.

_Levi flies down the steps to the helm and down the deck, pulling out one of his cutlasses with one hand and grabbing a loose rope with the other. He swings from his ship to the other which is stuck in place by a long board connecting them, men trickling on board over it and joining in the fight on deck. He tackles a man and gets up first to stab him through the chest then pulls his stained sword out of the man’s flesh and leaves him to bleed out._

_Weaving through the crowd he dodges swords that seem to actually go through him and each cut burns his flesh but they don't affect his movements. He goes below deck and it’s dark and cold and empty. At the end of the deck he sees a bronze light, shining from a chest. He walks towards it painfully slow and opens it equally as sluggish revealing a large pile of gold coins, silver coins here and there and even a few garnets, all of it seeming to glow brightly and illuminate the darkness around him._

There's a presence.

_His whole back goes hot with vulnerable nerves and he doesn’t hesitate in spinning around and stabbing his cutlass through the person’s chest. He feels the vicious expression on his face fall as he stares back into glowing teal blue eyes wide with surprise. He had the same staggered look he had when he had taken the hot chocolate, with parted lips and eyes that were still glowing with life as if he hadn’t been stabbed at that moment._

_And suddenly the sword was gone and he_ wasn’t  _cut open._

There's music.

_They were standing on the dock again and the whole world around them was dark, there was nothingness besides them, the dock, and the midnight blue water lapping at the boards. Eren held out his measly gold and silver pieces cupped in both palms and Levi took one and flipped it._

_And Eren smiled._

There's laughter.

~o0o~

He still wakes up in a cold sweat and breathing heavily.

He stares at the ceiling for a bit before sitting up slowly and leaning over his bed with his face in his hands. He takes a few minutes to come back to himself, still lost to images in his nightmare. Finally, he looks up to the clock to see its one hour past midnight. He had about two hours of sleep, as usual.

Levi sighs and runs a hand through his hair, then gets up and goes into the kitchen to make himself some tea. He checks in on Hanji and finds her happily filling the room with loud obnoxious snores. The fire had burned down to coals so he put a few more logs and fresh coals in the pit, closed and locked the gate and went back into the kitchen to drink his tea.

The tea was nice but he still felt overwhelmed. Some cool air would help, he thought. A walk in freezing cold air would definitely get his mind off his dream. He slipped on his boots, grabbed his cloak and tricorn and left the house with the only sound heard being Hanji’s loud snores in the next room.

He didn’t bother grabbing a lantern as he started walking the cobble trail. His legs worked out the stress of the night and carried him to the docks, the same one he and Eren had talked on.

Eren…

_Eren held out his measly gold and silver pieces cupped in both palms and Levi took one and flipped it._

_And Eren smiled._

_Laughter._

He stared into the dark water and thought about his dream. His visions weren’t the only reason he had trouble sleeping, he just never felt tired enough, always alert. Hanji called it _insomnia_ or some shit. Being back with Isabel and Farlan helped a bit since it was familiar ground but sometimes on the ship he didn’t sleep for days at a time. But even in his sleep deprived state he could still break a sailor’s arm if it came to it.

Through his thinking reverie he suddenly heard something. It wasn’t loud or quiet, it was like wind sweeping over the ears. A song, someone was singing. _Two_ people were singing, in fact. He hadn’t noticed it before since he was preoccupied with staring off into space, but now that he had heard it he suddenly felt so _tired_. His legs gave out from under him and he lowered himself to sit on the end of the dock with his legs underneath him and leaned against the pole next to him. He listened to the music and fought the exhaustion compelling him to close his eyes, knowing he would most definitely fall asleep if he did.

He fell into a state of dozing, keeping his eyes open while also being too tired to think. The song faded in and out, as if the two voices were going somewhere and then coming back but it was still coherent enough to understand.

Hours ticked by. The song changed multiple times and each time Levi’s heart changed with it. Comfort. Happiness. Longing. He noticed the second voice leave a short time after the song began, but the other seemed content to sing on its lonesome just as beautifully.

He was ripped out of his stupor suddenly when a loud screeching noise behind him broke through the notes of the now lullaby-like song. He froze in place and whipped around to see Eren’s blue and gold feathered bird perched on the edge of one of the poles, as if ready to jump off it and onto him. He glared at the bird with slight confusion and it screeched loudly at him again when he tried to look back at the bay.

“What the fuck! Shut up you feathered rat!” Armin puffed his chest out, as if offended by his words. “Why are you here? Did Eren let you out?” Armin let out a string of never ending squawks in the same high tone over and over until Levi pushed himself up and he jumped to another pole. Levi realized his fingers had gone numb from the cold and his toes were uncomfortably cold in his boots. How long had he been sitting there? A few hours at least. He should get home before he freezes too much to walk.

He sort of limps down the dock, hiding his hands under his cloak to warm them up and Armin jumping from pole to pole following him. When they get to the last pole Levi scowls but holds out his arm for the bird to jump on. Armin hesitates but climbs up his arm and onto his shoulder so he can keep his hands warm. He even curls up slightly into Levi’s neck, which he allows reluctantly since the little feather ball is warm. Levi glances behind him one last time at the lightening horizon before continuing on his way home.

When he gets to the house Armin jumps off his shoulder, flaps his wings roughly a few times and flies into the shadowed trees. Levi didn’t care enough to question it and got into the house a bit noisier than he would have preferred, throwing off his tricorn and cloak and slipping out of his boots before throwing more logs into the fire and sitting in front of it with a blanket over his shoulders. He felt so tired, so _exhausted._ He couldn’t remember the last time he felt this drained. His _insomnia_ wouldn’t have allow it.

The fire grows and he rubs his hands together, blissfully warming up while thinking of nothing. He decided to recite the song he heard before in his head that made him too exhausted to keep his eyes open. His head began to hurt with the effort to remember. It was already starting to fade. The notes weren’t right, it became sad, then violent in his mind. He remembered the part of his dream where he stabbed Eren in the chest, but this time Eren looked terrified, blood splattered his face, his eyes quivered in fear with the sword embedded right in his heart and not disappearing like before. He looked at Levi with deadening eyes and fell back, the sword pulling out of him as he fell backward-

Levi shot up from the floor in a panic and looked around the living room in muddled confusion. The fire was down to cinders once again and the room was lit with early morning light. Morning light? Did he sleep? He must have fallen into a dream, making it feel like real life.

He raised his stiff body and dragged himself and his blanket into his room. He threw the blanket into his closet and rolled onto the bed, still clad in his uncomfortable everyday clothes and prodding belt. He couldn’t get the image of Eren’s fading gaze out of his mind’s eye. His sore position and terrible thoughts evoked an aching feeling in his chest, one he knew too well.

He felt dirty.

He needed to see his face.

Levi laid down for a few minutes then lurched up from the bed and left his room, stopping dead in his tracks at Eren’s door. He needed to see those eyes alive and well. He wanted to see him smile and say he was fine. That’s what Isabel did when he dreampt of her, same with Hanji. When it was others, such as his crew, he would just need to see their face and be satisfied. So just peek in and look at him sleeping peacefully and breathing, alive.

He couldn’t even reach for the handle.

He felt like it would burn him. It was like he could feel Eren’s fire from outside the door. He was fine. He’d see him in a few hours or so when he woke up. What are you panicking about? He’s safe inside the house.

He still sat at the door. He couldn’t bring himself to move away. Simply staring at the wood cracks and shine on the handle which shimmered as it turned and the cracks in the wood moved farther away as the door opened…

And Eren’s emerald green eyes stared back at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm uploading this early cause the last chapter was kinda short. But that also means that the next chapter will be a while, maybe a month or less. But I've been writing lots! Very long chapters! Very good! Good Berry!  
> Your comments give me strength (0//3//0)


	16. What's the End Goal?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren has very nice legs~ POV changes a lot try to keep up!

“L-Levi? What are you doing here?” Eren opened the door wider, revealing more of his and Armin's figure accentuated by the brightening window behind him.  Levi felt relief flood his body as he stared into Eren’s eyes unflinchingly and unabashed, though it made the other rather flustered with his appearance and blatant staring. It took Levi a second to realize he had just been asked a question.

“Couldn’t sleep.” Oh. Wow. You’re a fucking genius, Levi, a genius. “I was just about to get some tea.” You’re also a liar Levi. Isn’t this just swell.

“Oh… any bad dreams?” Eren asked as he leaned on the door with a hand.

Levi sighed and looked towards the floor. “Maybe…” He took a step down the hallway but stopped in place when he noticed a dark blotch on the boy’s pant leg. It was then he realized Eren was keeping his weight off his left leg as well. Had he gotten hurt somehow?

His head was filled with images once again. His mind was very weak today, boggled and deteriorating for all he knew although for what reason he had no clue. Usually the dreams came and went, he had some tea and would carry on with the day. Instead he felt so damaged, so panicked, and it must have shown as Eren looked down in confusion at his leg and then back at Levi with wide eyes, his emotions unreadable in the darkness aside from his eyes.

“Are you okay?” Levi’s voice was loud in the dark hallway. Eren’s eyes didn’t break from his own, though they seemed frightened.

“Uhm... ah no actually! I woke up to a terrible ache in my leg and came out to look at it in the light…”

This alarmed the raven. So that blotch was blood? “You’re fucking bleeding kid, how the hell would you not realize that?” Levi grabbed his hand before he could answer and dragged him towards the kitchen to retrieve the emergency medical supplies they kept in one of the cupboards. When he grabbed the box he turned to see Eren take a limp step over to the table with both hands wrapped around his key necklace and a worried expression on his face. The bird on his shoulder seemed to be slumped against the crook of his neck making Eren grab it and hold it in his arms like a sleeping child.

“Take a seat and pull up your pant leg.” Levi pulled out a drawer, grabbed a match and closed it again before joining Eren at the table who pulled back his pant leg hesitantly and with a grimace. Levi didn’t notice how he startled the brunette when he ignited the match and lit the melting candle resting center on the table. Eren startled again when Levi picked up his leg and without a second thought pulled it onto his lap, studying the long thin line stretching on the side of his mid-thigh to his ankle.

“Well you definitely don’t need stitches, and that’s good or I would’ve needed to get Isabel and I’d rather not at this hour…” Levi mumbled more to himself as he got out the disinfectant and bandages from the medical box. “Seriously kid, how do you keep getting hurt like this? First the cut on your head and now this... How did this happen?” He glanced up and their eyes met for a second before Eren covered his face with his hands, the bird in his arms falling to curl up in his lap.

“I might have tripped on something on the way back from the dock and just not noticed until now…”

“That’s a hell of a lot of time to not notice a bloody scratch on your leg,” Levi said suspiciously as he poured the disinfectant on a cotton swab and started dabbing the wound. Eren’s leg tensed and toes curled and he made a sort of squeak followed by a muffled whine from the sting. Levi just had to stare at the boy’s trembling hands for a second before breathing deep and going back to the wound. “Sorry. Didn’t you notice when you were getting ready for bed?”

“I-I was too tired to care I guess. I fell asleep face first and drooled all over my pillow…”

“Gross.” Levi started wrapping a bandage around his leg and when he glanced back up he found the boy staring at his leg being dressed and then up at him. Those eyes looked scared, and he didn’t know why. It made his chest ache a little. “Hey, your leg is fine. Don’t look so constipated.” He looked down again and ran his thumbs over the bandages and the smooth skin of his leg. The hairs on his legs were smooth and could barely be seen in the flickering light of the candle. They were like a woman’s legs. “Unless you’re worrying over something else?” He looked up from the corner of his eye and smirked at the faint blush adorning Eren’s face. At the question, he heard the boy’s breath hitch and he rubbed his eyes tiredly.

“Uh… no. Not at all. Just a bit miffed from this cut is all! I have no idea how I could have gotten it.” This kid must know he has an easily readable face to cover his eyes before lying like that. Yeah, he knew he was lying. Even the bird on in his lap seemed to glance up at him when he said that.

Though the other part of his mind couldn’t help but notice how cute he looked while rubbing his eyes.

 _Focus_ damnit.

“Let me check your head as well, since we have the medical supplies out already.” Eren nodded and pulled his leg down to scooch his chair forward towards Levi. Levi undressed the bandage and found the wound to be surprisingly healthy, nearly completely closed over even.

“Huh…”

“What is it?” Eren asked with worry.

“I guess I’ll need to tell Isabel to remove the stitches, the cut has nearly healed completely…” Levi glimpsed at Eren’s face which was suddenly very close to his own but then switched his gaze back to the wound to distract himself. He re-wrapped the bandage, not wanting to waste supplies on cleaning it since Isabel would do it later when she took out the stitches and sighed when finished.

“Where did you learn to do all of this Levi?” Eren asked curiously as he pulled away and ran his fingers over the bandage.

“You mean dress and clean cuts and bruises? Isabel is a damn doctor, I thought I’d pick up a few things.” That was partially true. Isabel had been their trio’s main priority when they were kids, dressing her up as a boy and working jobs to pay for her education in medicine since men weren’t too keen on women learning anything more than how to be a nurse. No, Isabel went above and beyond and became the best doctor in their district in Sina through hard work and determination. Well, also connections.

It was when they were… against the law that he decided to learn a bit on how to save a life.

“Can you walk?” Eren gathered up the bird in his lap and tried standing up. The boy looked down at his leg and wiggled his toes before smiling and giving Levi a grateful smile that reached his eyes.

“Yes! It feels just fine. Thank you, Levi.” Levi stood and cleared his throat since his heart seemed to be stuck in it.

“Well you should go change out of those…” Levi gestured to the boy’s night pants that seemed to mold around his narrow hips, one pant leg revealing his cleaned and bandaged leg. “pants…”

Eren sighed and looked down at the blotch between the folds of his pants. “They seem to be ruined huh?” He made a displeased sound and pouted. “And Isabel just got me these…”

“Don’t worry kid, with those coins you got her she’ll be able to buy you another pair.” Levi said as he found himself shamelessly eyeing the exposed skin of his leg again.

“Uhm…” Levi looked up at Eren’s flustered face. Whoops, he got caught staring. “Y-You said you were going to make tea?”

“Would you like a cup?” Levi asked, moving to fill the kettle and start the stove fire nonchalantly, like he hadn’t just been eyeing those delicious thighs. Jesus if this kid didn’t end up in his bed before he left he’d be left with a lot of lust while out on sea.

_But wouldn't that be better?_

“Yes! I would like to try _tea_.” He said the word like he’d never heard it before. “Right after I change. I’ll be right back!” Eren said gleefully but quietly before he left the room while Levi pulled open a cupboard and skimmed over the types of tea they had.

_He probably didn’t deserve him anyway._

 

~o0o~

When Eren made it to his room he went in, locked the door and leaned back on it with a long weary exhale. He stared at nothingness for a bit before Armin wiggled in his arms and he placed the brightly colored bird on the bed then fell to his knees and started rubbing his face in the comforter. Armin stared at the boy, not knowing what to think.

“That was close…” Eren said into the blankets. Armin cocked his head.

“That was… surprising…” Eren looked up at Armin and sighed again, his face morphing into regret.

“Armin again I’m so sorry I just left you when we went to swim tonight-“

“Eren! Keep. Your. Voice down…” Armin said firmly, though his own voice seemed to squeak in the quiet room. “And it’s fine… I know it wasn’t you… I think it was good for you. I just wish you hadn’t gotten caught up in it right in the middle of the bay where anyone outside could hear you.” Eren pouted and mumbled an apology into the blankets again. “Although… do you remember any of it?”

Eren’s head rose and he put his elbows up on the bed. “It’s kind of blurry…I remember it in fractures… and I woke up under a dock,” he said with a breathy chuckle.

“…Eren you were singing with someone.”

Eren’s recollecting gaze morphed into shock immediately after he heard that.

“I… I s- _sang_ with someone? Like _sang_ sang? Like _siren_ sang? Or did I sing someone to the depths?! Oh no-“

“No no no! Eren, sirens don’t do that anymore! That was for our own protection, as a pod.” That seemed to lessen the dread but now he was more curious.

“So… I sang…”

“With another siren, yes.” The brunette perked up at that, his interest piqued. “I knew it had to be, because I heard two voices, not just yourself.”

“Did you see them?!” He asked excitedly.

“Of course not! I know better than to spy on or get anywhere near a siren on the night of the full moon. Though Levi obviously didn’t…”

Eren’s face altered from excitement to alarmed. “What do you mean?”

“I had to stay closer to the shore to not disturb you, and you know who I found sitting at the dock in the freezing cold?” Eren shook his head. “I found Levi, siting at the end of the dock, white as sea foam and listening to your song.”

“Oh no…” Eren looked guilty again as he brought a hand up to his mouth in shock.

“I don’t know how long he was sitting there, but after I reformed I snapped him out of it and lead him back to the house a few hours before you returned. He’s been acting strangely since then…”

“Well… I guess he has been a bit talkative lately…”

“Actually, I don’t believe that has to do with your song…”

Eren tilted his head in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“Have you seriously not noticed?”

“Noticed what?”

Armin was starting to doubt Eren’s intelligence, especially in this moment. Had Eren really not noticed how Levi seemed to be courting him as of late? The show he displayed just a minute ago was more than enough indication to suggest Levi at least liked the brunettes figure. Said brunette had even noticed some feather light touches and caught him staring, and he has nothing to say about that?

Armin stared bewildered at Eren a moment too long so the boy shook his head and stood.

“We’ll talk more later, right now I need to get dressed and drink some tea!”

At this moment, Armin had two options. Tell Eren that Levi is courting him right now, or study Levi’s courting and watch Eren act like a fool in retaliation…

Armin could wait another day or so before telling him.

 

~o0o~

When Eren had dressed and returned Levi was sitting at the table with two mugs of _tea_. It was lemon flavored, Levi explained. Eren didn’t know what a lemon was, but he liked it very much! It was thick with saturation and lit up his taste buds in a very subtle yet sour way that warmed him up to his ears. He thanked Levi for the tea and Levi answered Eren’s questions about the beverage, how it was made, what other flavors there were, how the flavors were made, and Eren noticed how whenever he asked a question Levi didn’t get the least bit agitated like that human (Jean was it?) did at the tavern that night. Eren even commented on it.

“You don’t seem to be as agitated by my questions as Jean was last night…”

“Who?” Levi asked and after a moment he rolled his eyes. “Oh that brat I hired from Trost. Yes well I decided to give you a break since you seem to have never been around human civilization before.” Eren felt his blood go cold even as his face heated up terribly at that and he dropped the seed he was about to feed Armin halfway through.

Armin pecked at the seed Eren dropped. “W-Well… I hope I’m not annoying you at least…”

“If you were annoying me, you’d know.”

 _No I wouldn’t,_ Eren thought. _I have no idea how humans work!_

Eren changed the subject back to tea and fed Armin a few seeds and strawberries that Levi had brought out as well, and he was contented in just feeding the cute bird while also talking to Levi. But eventually his eyes started to droop and sting from last night escapades. He most likely hadn’t slept that long under the dock and his body still felt exhausted. He hadn’t sung like he had last night ever before and usually, even with a short song, a siren rests a long while after a long night of 'fun'. Rest and consumption were much appreciated due to the aches a siren goes through after a night like such. But every siren would agree, the bliss is well worth the headache.

He was barely awake with his head leaning on his hand when Isabel padded into the kitchen, one hand rubbing her eye and the other scratching her belly, and went to the faucet for a cup of water, oblivious to their existence. Levi and Eren had been sitting in a comfortable silence for a little while when Eren ran out of curiosity and questions, the brunette slowly falling asleep in his chair and not noticing Levi take their cups to get washed.  

When Isabel filled a cup at the sink and started drinking it, she finally opened her eyes and glanced to the side, getting an eyeful of Levi staring at her with one eyebrow raised and she suddenly started spitting her water into the sink in a panic. The sudden noise made Eren jump in his spot at the table and look around in alarm which Levi gave another unimpressed stare towards.

Isabel wiped her mouth with a towel and sighed with both hands holding the sink edge. Staring out the kitchen window her mouth twisted in disdain.

“Didn’t see ya there.”

“No shit,” Levi drawled, rolling his eyes and sitting back down at the table. Eren looked between the two with dull, sleepy eyes and, determining that there was no danger, set his head back on his hand and swayed in his seat.

“Why are you even up?” Levi glanced over at Eren and back at Isabel when she turned back around with a degraded expression and crossed arms.

“Eren apparently cut himself on something last night and woke up early when he started to feel it. I happened to be awake so I cleaned it up and checked his head. His stitches are ready to be taken out by the way.” Isabel’s eyebrows raised at the last comment.

“Already? It’s only been three days!”

“He’s either a fast healer or I was mistaken,” he sighed. “It was quite dark.” Both their gazes slipped over to Eren who’s bird was trying to peck his nose to keep him awake. Isabel stepped forward and touched the boy’s shoulder softly.

“Eren?” The brunette grunted and his eyes fluttered for a moment before he gave up and closed them again. “You look really tired hun. Maybe you should go back to bed and we’ll wake you up later.” Eren hummed in acknowledgement but didn’t really move. Isabel chuckled but then choked up and covered her mouth with a grimace.

“Are you okay?” Levi asked. Isabel perked up at her name and waved dismissively.

“Ah I’m fine! Just been feeling a little sick lately!” She shook Eren’s shoulder softly. “Eren? Hey you awake in there?”

Eren groaned and crossed his arms on the table, laying his head on top and trapping Armin in between his arms and his head. Armin squirmed, trying to get out of the hold but stopped once he began tangling himself in Eren’s chocolate locks. Isabel sighed.

“Don’t make me get Levi to carry you!” She whisper yelled, obviously not as against the idea as her words described.

“Why do you want him out of here so badly?”

“He’s falling asleep in his chair, Levi,” she said waving a hand at him and cocking a hip. “I don’t want him sleeping in such a weird position until I make something for us to _eat._ Just carry him back to his room before Hanji wakes up and rouses the whole neighborhood with her… _her._ ” They both rolled their eyes and sighed, which surprised Levi since Isabel was usually more chipper in the morning. Today she seemed off. More tired but she looked, well… better at the same time as acting worse.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Levi asked again. Isabel basically ran the house and took care of everyone around her, so it would be a dreadful experience for everyone if she got sick.

“Well… No. I’m fine. Just feeling a little lightheaded! Now get this pup back to his room!” And with that she went right to work with making breakfast, opening the cupboards to start pulling out pans and wood for the stove.

Levi sighed and got out of his chair. He looked at the sleeping boy thinking for a moment before extracting the poor, limp bird from the crevasse the brunette trapped him in and placing it down on the table to skitter to its feet and shake its head. Levi swept the boy up in his arms and couldn’t help but think how this was the second time he had had this kid in his arms since he’d been here. Armin jumped and latched onto his sleeve, climbing up his arm and onto his shoulder but he didn’t bother wiggling him off since he was going to shower soon anyway. Eren rested his head on his chest and curled up to get comfortable in his arms as Levi swiftly and quietly carried him down the hallway and to his room.

When he pushed the door open with his foot he was hit with a wave of cold air and felt a shudder roll through Eren at the contact, making him cuddle into him more. Armin shrunk into the crook of his neck as he surveyed the open window, washing the room in the dim blue light of morning while also pouring in the outside icy air.

 _Did Eren really sleep with the window open?_ Levi thought bitterly. _What an idiot. No wonder he couldn’t sleep._

Without a second thought he turned on his heel and twisted the knob to his own bedroom. It was a little cold from being mostly unused but it was a lot warmer than Eren’s room.

 _If Isabel really is sick we can’t have him getting sick too,_ he thought as he pulled back the covers and placed Eren on his bed. Eren was a like a wet rag, limbs clinging to Levi and hanging off the edge of the bed when he finally let go. Levi sighed and glared at the bird on his shoulder, a silent message that clearly stated ‘get off.’ Armin happily jumped off his shoulder and rolled onto the bed, wobbling over to the pillow besides the one Eren was using and curling up in a happy ball of feathers. Levi scowled, taking note to clean that pillow and all the sheets after Eren woke up and got out of his bed.

Even with his averse thoughts, Levi tucked his legs and arms under the comforter with care and stared at the boy's sleeping face with softening eyes.

“Such a brat,” he mumbled. “Can’t even put himself to bed.” He still stared a moment longer before finally reaching forward and patting the boy’s feathery soft hair. Eren snorted and rubbed his face into the pillow and Levi let a small smile slip onto his face at how adorable the action was.

“Don’t make me need to carry you to bed again, you brat.” He retrieved his hand and left the room, closing the door with careful agility and leaning back on it with a breath. He ran his hands over his eyes.

What was the end goal to his affections?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took a while to upload. I've been feeling a bit bad about my writing skills, comparing it to other fics and such. But I can't just leave you hanging! Hope the word count makes up for it :3
> 
> Wanna know why Isabel feels sick? Too bad see you in three weeks XP  
> ALSO I'm re-editing all the chapters to my current writing style. The story hasn't changed, but you'll notice it's not as bland and to the point as before. I really just wanted to get to the point back when I first started this. Lay out the facts IMMEDIATELY. But I slowed it down a bit, changed a few details. I've only done the first chapter but more will be fixed soon! Check it out if ya feel like it :,3


	17. Talk About It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Levi is honest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HEY SORRY IM SUCH A SHIT   
> I told myself I wouldn't go on long hiatuses like other writers but look at me now!   
> ItS bEeN fIvE mOnThS  
> I'm so sorry please forgive me and enjoy this chapter QnQ

“Is he in bed?” Levi nodded as he returned to his seat at the table. Isabel flipped bacon and eyed the eggs on the stove with a distant look on her face. Usually, Farlan would be up a little after her, but since he wasn’t here yet she must not have woke him. Yeah, something was definitely different today.

“You seemed to have gotten up earlier than usual. And it's on your week off too.” Isabel sighed and backed away from the stove, falling into a chair and rubbing her face.

“I think I’m pregnant.”

Levi’s brow furrowed. He slowly turned his stare to the red head opposite of him.

_“What?”_

“It’s not bad news. We’ve been trying for the past two months…”

“Why was this not the first thing I heard when I got here?” He asked, incredulous lacing his voice along with slight offense.

“I wasn’t sure it was true! But I had a bit of morning sickness today and my next menstruation cycle hasn’t happened for the last two weeks.”

“You follow when that happens?”

“I do when I’m trying to get pregnant!” Isabel snapped. The bacon’s crackle and pops drew her back to cooking and she discarded the eggs and bacon onto a plate and grabbed a fork from a drawer before returning to the table. Levi snatched a piece of bacon and Isabel glared at him before digging into her plate. Just because Eren never saw him eat didn’t mean he didn’t.

“I was wondering why you weren’t shitfaced last night.”

“I haven’t had a real drink ever since we started trying.” Levi grimaced.

“Yeesh.”

“Yeah. _Yeesh._ ”

They sat in silence for a bit while Isabel ate. Levi ate a few strawberries that were left out for Eren to feed to Armin. Watching her eat with the exhausted look on her face but the glow on her skin, which explained why she was in such a grumpy mood but looked nice, Levi realized things were going to change with a baby in the picture. Isabel would need to stop working- or would she? She was pretty tough, she could probably still work if she really wanted to, which she would. But what about after the baby was born? She would need to stop working to stay at home and take care of it. Speaking of taking care of things…

She just took in Eren. Where was he in this picture?

“What about Eren?”

“What _about_ Eren?”

“He’s… _Eren._ If you have a baby, you’ll need to stop working and Farlan’s job can’t pay for all four of you.”

Isabel tsked at him. “I don’t think Eren will stay _that_ long. Nine months is a long time! Maybe he’ll get a job, go travel the world like he always wanted.”

“With no one. And nothing. And no knowledge of what is actually going on in the world?”

“We’ll teach him!”

“Isabel.” Isabel finally lifted her eyes from where she had been boring a hole in the empty plate in front of her. “He’s a liability. You can't take care of three people all on your own- and it's true, you really are carrying this family.”

“Well excuse me Levi but he is my burden!” Isabel stood from her seat, her words firm but lowered so as not to disturb the house. “ _Yes,_ Eren is oblivious and ignorant but he’s also really eager to learn! You can see it in his eyes. We both know he doesn’t want to be a burden and if he really wants to help he’ll do all he can with what he has to do his best.” She accentuated the last few words with a few taps on the table and then sat back down and crossed her arms. After another minute of silence, she spoke again. “Even so…” She sighed and slumped in her chair, a distressed look on her face. “What if it’s not enough…”

Levi sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose in exasperation.

Isabel was more a child than an adult. Always cheery, always eager to help and Levi always forgot that mature side of her, which he didn’t see and didn’t like to see all that often. The side that’s distressed, worried, remorseful over a patient she lost. So he dealt with it the same way he dealt with his own problems. Ignored it and let Farlan deal with the aftermath later.

He got up from his chair and kneeled in front of the girl. “Hey.” Isabel looked up in time for Levi to wipe away a stray tear that escaped her eye. “No one should be crying on their vacation.” Isabel placed her hand on Levi’s on her cheek, shutting her eyes and leaning into the touch. “So let’s have Farlan do the cooking and go to the beach later. Fresh air will do the two of you some good.” Isabel sniffled and nodded, a small smile slipping to her lips.

“That would be great.”

“What would be great?” Hanji mumbled through a yawn as she walked through the kitchen doorway, stretching. When she saw their position she lifted her hands and took a step back.

“Whooooa… Levi… you trying to steal Farlan’s lady?” She asked with both hands pointing at him. Levi and Isabel grimaced, Levi pulling away and wiping his hand on his shirt in mock disgust and Isabel wiping her face vigorously, mostly for act but also to wipe her watery eyes.

“Ew Hanji, no!”

“She’s like a sister to me four eyes!” Hanji raised her hands in defense.

“Geez, take a joke!” Hanji walked over to the sink to get herself a cup of water and Levi and Isabel met eyes, Levi’s soft for once. Hanji drank two cups of water then dropped into a chair. “So what were you two talking about while I was off in dreamland?”

Isabel and Levi shared a look and Levi shook his head at her. Isabel shrugged up her shoulders with a questioning look and Levi shook his head at her more firmly.

_Not now,_ please _not now. You’ll wake up the world with her cheers._

Isabel rolled her eyes with a nod, getting what he was trying to say.

“Just about Eren.” Levi sighed through his nose and went to make the women some tea.

“Oh really? You gonna do something with him today? Can I come~?”

“Today is a lazy day Hanji. You just got shitfaced last night and you’re still eager to go out and do stuff?”

“I’m only here for another day after this one! I spend way too much time with grumpy over there, I _need_ my fill of civilization!”

“Well then. No tea for you, you shit,” Levi said as he brought two cups of tea over but only set one in front of Isabel and holding the other one out of Hanji’s reach.

“Leeeeviiii! Gimme! Please end my suffering!”

“Alright if you insist. Just let me go get my swords.” Hanji snatched the cup out of his hand when he started walking for the door.

“Hot hot hot!” She set it down on the table quickly, waving her hands to cool them down while blowing on the tea.

_More like spit on it,_ Levi thought. _Gross._

“So where is the little cutie anyway?”

“Who?” Levi asked. He knew who she was talking about but hoped she wouldn’t remember their talk last night.

“You know exactly who I’m talkin’ ‘bout.” She said with a playful expression. Ah shit. She remembered. Levi sighed.

“He’s in my room, sleeping.”

“YOU’RE room?!” Hanji asked a bit loudly. Levi hushed her with a glare.

“Tch! His room was freezing when I went to put him back in there ‘cause he left the windo-“

“ _When you put him back in there?!?_ ” Hanji said not quite as loud but just as excited and exaggerated.

“Hanji it’s not like that,” Isabel said with a chuckle behind her hand. Levi looked at her and all he could think was, _What a motherly laugh._

“You defiled his innocence, didn’t you? And I thought you were gonna take this slow-“

“ _Hanji_. Shut up. It isn’t like that.”

“Take what slow?” Isbel asked suspiciously, but she was thoroughly ignored by both of them.

“So you didn’t defile his innocence? Aawwww…”

“Stop sulking! It’s not something to sulk about!”

“Hey. Take what slow?” Isabel said louder.

“ _Nothing._ Shut up.” Levi snapped.

“Well last night-“

“Shut up.”

“Levi and I were talk-“

“Hanji shut the fuck up.”

“About that cutie with the booty-“

“Hanji shut your fucking mouth before I snap your neck!”

“He has a huge crush on Eren!”

“ _Hanji!_ ”

“Levi lower your voice!”

“Yeah you’re going to be a great mom with that attitude.”

“Levi!”

“A mom?!”

“Everyone be quiet!” Everyone went quiet at Farlan’s command and he stared at each person with a tired glare. “If you’re going to talk, do it in the living room. Go live in there. I need some coffee.” He streaked passed everyone and went straight to grinding up beans and heating water on the still hot stove. Levi tsked and hurried out of the room, starting to go to his own room then stopping in his spot when he remembered there was a boy sleeping in his bed. He turned around and walked to the living room instead, in day old clothes, aggravated and still sleepy for some reason even though he slept an extra two hours after he got home last night.

He heard Hanji muffle a laugh as he passed by the kitchen doorway.

_Piece of shit four eyes. I’ll kill that woman before the insanity does._

~o0o~

Eventually they all moved to the living room to talk.

“You’re pregnant?!”

“I’m pretty sure.”

“This is great news! Congratulations!”

Farlan wrapped his arms around Isabel and laid his hands on her stomach. “Another family member,” he hummed.

“Another brat in the world,” Levi said, leaning his head on a hand.

“Levi! Don’t be like that. The mother is right there,” Hanji said waving a hand towards Isabel who sighed with a flustered expression.

“Guess I’ll have to get used to that title now, hm?”

“Farlan gets to call you mommy now~” Hanji cooed. Isabel blushed then, a rare sight on such a fierce woman.

“Hanjiiii,” she whined.

“I’m just teasing!”

“Yeah so when are you getting kids?” Isabel asked.

“I’m married to adventure! I don’t have the heart to settle down like you.”

Isabel leaned back into Farlan and closed her eyes. “We’re gonna need to get a crib and clothes, toys, books-“

“We can worry about that after the baby’s born. Right now, we should worry about you and keep you healthy,” Farlan mumbled in her hair. He substituted drinking his coffee in place of hugging Isabel to his chest like she was something precious.

Levi looked at the two of them with fond eyes. To think the rebel children he used to fight beside would be cuddling each other on the floor of a house they built and shared together amazed him. It made the raven feel old, yet like he still had a long road ahead of him, to also get to that point. Though he would never get sick of being out at sea, whoever he decided to be with would have to be as enamored with the seven seas just as much as he was. Whoever that might be.

“What about you Levi? When are you going to settle?”

Levi looked around at their tired morning faces with a raised brow. “I’m with Hanji on this one. Whoever I end up with- if anyone -must go with me wherever I go.”

“Yeah, a long-distance relationship where you only see each other once a year doesn’t suit you,” Isabel alleged. Hanji rolled onto her belly and put her face on her fists, a wide smile shining on her face.

“What about that petite little Petra? I’ve heard she’s got quite the crush~” Hanji said which made everyone’s head snap up. Well except for Farlan who just looked up languidly.

“Petra?!” Isabel exclaimed and Farlan shushed her lazily, rubbing his face in her hair. Hanji hummed with a slow nod, still holding that shit eating grin on her face.

“Yeah! For quite a while now.” Hanji and Isabel looked up at Levi who’s eye twitched at the sudden predicament.

“Petra…”

“That’s what I said Mr. Grump.”

“Yeah that’s not going to happen.”

“What?? Why not!” Hanji exclaimed, pushing her torso up and giving Levi a questioning look. Levi pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.

“I’m not…”

“You’re not what?” Levi mumbled something under his breath and Hanji leaned in closer.

“What? Speak up grouchy!”

“I’m not into people who are shorter than me,” he finally snapped. Hanji stared at him in bewilderment for a moment, then the next she was on her back having a giggling fit. Isabel stared at him with an expression that could only be described as saying, “are you kidding me?”

Hanji kept on giggling as Levi’s eyebrow twitched in irritation. “And I’m more into men anyway!” Hanji cut off her laughter and went quiet, stared at him for a moment, then started laughing even harder. Isabel looked at Levi with wide eyes and a blush and Farlan was limp over her shoulders, most likely already asleep again. When Levi realized what he said he had the urge to get up and start kicking the crazy woman in the stomach but kept himself down with his hands digging into the armrests.

“Oh my god…” Hanji spoke between laughs. “A-and… s… so _what?_ You like big burly men with hair who are taller than y-you? Pffff hahahaha!” She wiped tears from her eyes and Levi was livid in his seat. He gave her his most venomous glare he had ever made in his life and saw Isabel cowering in the corner of his eye. The brunette still laughed hysterically until it became too loud and Isabel threw a nearby pillow at her.

“Hanji! Quiet down! You’re going to wake up Eren.” Hanji stopped in the middle of her laughter with a large gasp and Levi felt his blood drain. Oh _no._

She rolled over and pushed herself up to sit back on her knees. “You mean that cutie who is half a foot taller than Levi and _male?_ I’m not the only one who’s noticed it right?” She waved her hands around looking between the two of them with incredulous. At this point Farlan was definitely asleep on Isabel’s back, which was good news for Levi. Relationships and affections were more in the women’s category.

“You mean Levi’s obvious crush on Eren?” Isabel said and Levi turned to stare at her instead, betrayed.

Hanji clicked her tongue and nodded while smiling. “Yep!”

“Can you two. Please. Shut the fuck up?” Levi said slowly, staring at the floor and trying to control his breathing.

“No Levi! I think you should talk about it!” Isabel exclaimed and extracted her hand out from under Farlan’s hold to take a sip of her tea.

“Yeah Levi! We want to help!” Hanji said and scooched closer to Levi’s chair on the floor. A dangerous move.

“I think he would be a good influence on you,” Isabel thought.

“You would be so cute together!”

“He _is_ adorable. I wouldn’t mind him being in the family.”

“We could take him around the countries!”

“Stop it!” Levi said a bit too loud and the two women stared at him with incredulous. He sighed heavily and rubbed his face. “Can you two stop talking like we’re going to get married? I’m leaving the day after tomorrow and I’ll probably never see him again. That is unless he stays with you for the next few months.”

“Well that’s true,” Hanji said with a sad expression. She sighed dramatically. “Your first crush and it’s between star-crossed lovers.”

“We’re neither star-crossed nor lovers, you four-eyed, mangy haired,  _cretin._ ” Levi said and sat back in his chair with a huff.

“But Levi,” Isabel said more delicately and Levi turned his attention to her warily. “You do have affections for him don’t you?” Levi thought about whether he should answer truthfully or not, but either way, Hanji would say something. Best it come from him.

“Well yes…”

“I knew it!” Hanji exclaimed.

“Hush up, Hanji! Let him talk,” Isabel chastised.

“Wow, you really do sound like a mother already,” Hanji said with a smirk but sat quietly nonetheless.

“So, Levi. When did it start, do you think?” Levi thought, running a hand through his hair and sat with his legs crossed. He heard Hanji giggle, it was because he looked like a child in that position. He would only ever be comfortable enough to do it in front of these two women, he supposed.

“Probably after a talk we had at the market the other day.”

“Well, that wasn’t too long ago… Are you sure you like him? It usually takes you way longer than two days to make friends. Usually years.”

“Yeah! He just recently stopped beating me up when I come to wake him up in the mornings!”

“I can wake up just fine without your stupid fucking shouting, you shit.” Levi snapped.

“See? Only hurtful words!”

“Anyway, what made you like him so much?”

“Psh, Isabel that’s obvious!” Levi and Isabel looked to Hanji, Isabel curiously and Levi apprehensively. “Eren’s a hotty. He’s in it for that _ass._ ” Levi couldn’t hold back his face palm.

“Yeah I thought so,” Isabel murmured, as if Levi wouldn’t hear her, but he did.

“What is that supposed to mean?!” he barked. And now Hanji was cackling again. Great.

“Levi you’ve only ever flirted to get people into your bed, and while I’m okay with that because I know you, and know you would never treat strangers with any disrespect they didn’t deserve, I don’t think I could let you do that to Eren.” Hanji stopped laughing and her and Levi shared a look that said, _oh shit._ Responsible Isabel was in the room.

“Eren isn’t the kind of person who can have people thrown into his life and then be thrown away in return! And he’s definitely not a one-time fling, I’d feel sorry for anyone who went just one round with that cutie, he’s a long-term relationship or nothing.” Isabel ended up ranting to herself and Levi groaned in frustration.

“I already know that Isabel! I don’t want to hurt him either…”

Isabel and Hanji simultaneously gasped.

“Levi doesn’t want to hurt someone?”

“The world must be ending.”

“Hell must finally be freezing over!”

“Will you two just stop!” Levi cried and tugged at his hair in frustration. “I just… I don’t know what to do. He’s… perfect, basically. His skin, his hair, his fucking _eyes_ , and he’s so unbelievably ignorant but in a stupidly adorable way…” Levi glared down at his hands as he wrung them together, frustration evident in his furrowed brows and hunched shoulders. "He's obviously the opposite of me. He's obviously nice and kind hearted which is _not_ what I am in the slightest. If we were together I don't know if I'd ever be able to tell him about my past- _our_ past. It's an uphill battle. There's also the fact that we don't know him completely. I've still been suspicious of him for the last few days and there are still instances where I remind myself I can't trust him but he has such a trusting face! He's succubus is what he is. Trying to lure me in and then suck all the life out of me." When hefinished and looked up he found Isabel and Hanji both giving him fond looks.

“There’s my big brother,” Isabel said lovingly.

“Yeah! I thought that nice part of you died or was a trick and never actually existed,” Hanji laughed. Levi didn’t even have it in him to insult them, they were just trying to help.

“But like I said, I’m leaving the day after tomorrow. So there's no reason to fret over it...”

“Well that’s not true! You could spend time with him if you like him that much!” Hanji said excitedly.

“Yeah,” Isabel agreed. “Take a day out with the little tike, spend time with the cutie so me and Hanji can have our own girl day.”

“Can you not talk about him like he’s a child? Makes me feel like a pedophile,” Levi grumbled.

“It’s hard when he acts like one all the time,” Isabel replied. Levi sighed and rested his face in his hands.

“Tell me about it…” Suddenly Farlan groaned on Isabel’s shoulder and she raised a hand to pet his sandy blond hair.

“You awake yet? My ass is starting to hurt from all your weight on me.” Farlan blinked his eyes open to glower at his wife.

“Coffeeeee,” he whined.

“It went cold.”

“Noooooo…”

Isabel sighed. “Can’t believe I have to take care of _two_ babies in nine months…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd really like to know what you guys think of the characters personalities in my writing. Like... am I doing it right? Too many feels? No canon enough? Lemme know I love your comments ;n;


	18. Limits

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Limits are reached.

“Eren…”

Eren hummed sleepily at the hand shaking his shoulder gently. Was it his momma again? Was she back?

“Eren…”

No that voice sounded more male than his mother. He was so warm too. He didn’t remember his room being this warm when he was last in there.

“Hey.” The deep voice was more stern now, and Eren grumbled at the tone, the hand squeezing his shoulder tighter.

“Hey brat you’re drooling all over my pillow.” Eren finally opened his eyes and found it was Levi waking him up, his grey eyes staring at him with irritation. Eren’s eyes widened in response and he stared at him with confusion. He looked around and found he wasn’t even in his room, or his bed, and when he looked back at Levi observing him with a raised eyebrow he drew the covers up over his nose and his eyes got larger.

“Did you really just _cower_ under the blankets?” Levi mocked and Eren covered his head with the blanket in response, his face burning in embarrassment. “Come on kid, it’s time to get up.” Levi threw the covers away and Eren grabbed the pillow he drooled on, curling up around it.

“No…” He whined. “It’s cold…”

“Well it’s a lot warmer than your room,” Levi retorted, starting to fold a different blanket and stack it in his closet. “You’re welcome by the way.”

“Eh? For what?” Eren mumbled in the pillow he was squeezing.

“For letting a brat like you sleep in my room. It’s not something I do regularly, so don’t plan on it happening again.” Levi looked over at him to find the boy shivering but almost fallen back asleep. “Oi, are you even listening to me?” When Eren’s only response was his breath evening out Levi walked over and slipped the pillow out from his arms before smacking him on the head with it. “Hey. It’s time to get up. I need to clean these sheets since you drooled all over them.” Eren whined but complied, relaxing his muscles and stretching out over the bed with a yawn. He peeked through one eye and saw Levi’s eyes wandering over him before snapping back to his face. He slowly sat up when the older male abruptly turned away and started grabbing some clothes from his drawer. “Go to your room and get dressed. We’re all going out to the beach after eating.” Eren perked up from rubbing his eyes immediately at the mention of the beach.

“The beach?!” Eren exclaimed excitedly, leaning forward with sparkling eyes. Levi stopped at the door, clothes in arm and hand on the handle to look back at the brunette.

“Isabel and Farlan’s vacation lasts only for today and tomorrow now, so they want to do as many activities as possible. After the beach they’re going to go downtown and they want to spend that time together alone so I’m taking you horseback riding afterwards.” Eren’s smile could only grow until the declaring of Isabel and Farlan leaving them to go downtown and he ended up pouting. But at the mentioning of horseback riding Eren tilted his head in curiosity.

“Horseback riding…” Eren felt a tugging on his pants and looked down to see Armin drag himself into the brunettes lap. They met eyes and Eren noticed the little shake of his head before looking up with a bright smile. “Yes! That would be great! I’ll get ready then, for the beach.” He scooped Armin up and ran past Levi into his own room, shutting the door with a subtle click. He shivered from the room’s chill even though the window was shut and placed Armin on the bed before going to the dresser to look for clothes.

“So Armin. I assume you know what this ‘horseback riding’ is?” He tugged his shirt over his head and threw it into the seagrass woven hamper next to the dresser before grabbing another one to throw over his head.

Armin’s response was a pained groan, his voice wavering between the usual squeak to his normal voice and Eren spun around when he heard it. The brunette’s eyes widened when Armin’s little bird form started glimmering like he was about to transform, but he was holding himself back. “A-Armin?” Eren asked fearfully. Armin breathed deeply and shuffled for the window.

“E-Eren… I can’t hold this form forever… need to get out of this body…” Eren quickly went over and opened the window and lifted Armin to the sill.

“Armin are you okay?”

“I’ll be fine… I’ve just been in this body constantly for days… I need a day’s break…”

“B-But- what about the h-horseback riding?”

“You’ll be fine Eren. I’ll be back by tonight. I’ll be watching by the beach.” Eren didn’t get the chance to argue when Armin jumped out of the window and started flapping like mad in the direction of the ocean. Eren watched his shimmering form fly off with utter turmoil filling his veins, his friend disappearing behind the top of the tree line, and then closed the window and hugged his knees to his chest on the bed.

One second Armin was there, then the next he wasn’t. It should have been expected. Armin was a shapeshifter but he wasn’t made to stay the way he transformed! He had mermaid in his blood, not bird, of course he’d need a break after holding it even in sleep. Still Eren’s mind was in a panic and he ran a hand through his lengthy hair, making it stick in different directions. What was he to do? He didn’t know how to “horseback riding”!  It must have something to do with that creature he read about in his zoology book, “horses”, otherwise he hadn’t a clue.

His thoughts were disturbed by the sound of Levi’s door closing and steps going down the hallway. Eren jumped out of the bed as if he were guilty of something and hurried to switch his pants for swimming trunks and stuff a towel into his satchel before peeking out of the door and heading down the hallway quietly.

He stopped at the kitchen archway when he caught site of some leftover strawberries and seeds on the dining table. His cheeks suddenly started heating up at the remembrance of what occurred only that morning.

Levi at his door.

Levi dragging him to the kitchen.

Levi wrapping his leg.

Levi’s face close to his.

Levi staring.

Eren thought he would faint with the amount of blood building up in his face and he held onto the archway for balance as he took a few breaths. He had mixed emotions but really all he could focus on was _embarrassment._ Levi’s touches, Levi’s voice, Levi’s heat, Levi Levi Levi. He covered his face with his hands and rubbed his cheeks, willing them to cool down with his cold hands. Then he realized what had occurred on a few _minutes_ ago.

Sleeping in Levi’s bed.

Waking up in Levi’s room.

Levi watching him stretch.

_Levi…_

At this point there was no hope and he slid down the archway with his face in both hands, his blood so hot that he expected steam to start flowing from out of his ears.

He didn’t understand. He was so confused! The first two days Levi hadn’t seemed to care for him at all, then in one night he had Eren flustered beyond comprehension. Why the sudden interest? The sudden closeness and care? Was it-

Did it have something to do with his singing?

All his rushing blood seemed to freeze at the thought, leaving him dizzy.

Had he seduced Levi without him or Armin’s knowing? Had he planted false feelings in the man through his song? Or was it the other siren?

Now Eren wanted to cry.

He roughly shoved himself off the floor and ran down the hallway, slipping into a pair of sandals Isabel had picked out for him and running out the door without thinking to close it.

He ran down the barely familiar dirt path until he caught site of the beach, knowing he was in the right spot when the large rock from before came into view as he rounded the tree line. He threw his satchel and sandals towards the shaded spot under the rock and kept sprinting for the beach, not holding back the tingle in his legs when he waded through and dived beneath the waves.

~o0o~

Levi ruffled his hair with a white towel and sighed at the tangled feeling. Slinging the towel around his shoulders he got dressed in the usual routine. Undergarments, pants, belt, crisp shirt (smooth out the wrinkles), cravat, vest (button accordingly), dry and comb hair (part to the side), clean up the bathroom because those two brats, albeit _married_ brats _, soon to have a child_ together brats, were _still_ messy with their cleaning. He wondered, as he walked down the stairs from their room, how those two survived without him around to stress on the cleaning.

Though he didn’t care to think on it when he found the front door left open while leaving the bathroom. He stared at it until his eyes narrowed with suspicion, glanced around outside before closing it and turning to look around.

Hanji had fallen back asleep on the couch while Isabel was around the back of the house washing and hanging up some clothes she insisted on washing before they left. Farlan had gone out with her in hopes of lessening the load, but of course Isabel had retaliated.

_“Think of the baby!”_

_“It’s not even a baby yet, I bet it’s barely an egg!”_

He sighed. _Those two._

He walked down the hallway towards Eren’s room, assuming they had left the door open when they left while he was in the shower. He honestly didn’t know how they survived without him around.

He knocked on Eren’s door. “Oi, Eren. Are you ready yet? Isabel and Farlan will just have to catch up to us since I know you’re eager to leave.” He sat in wait but after a few moments of no response, not even a shuffle, he called again, “Eren?” He opened the door and looked inside, only to find the room empty, and a bit cold. The bed sheets were tousled and there was Eren’s shirt hanging out from the hamper, but Eren was nowhere to be found.

His heart thumped irregularly. Had Eren… left? As his eyes swept over the room a third time he noticed his satchel was gone as well. Eren had either left early or he had… left. Once again, Levi was reminded that Eren was but a stranger to him. A liar, albeit a nervous one. But that word didn’t sit well with him. Comparing the stingy word; liar, with Eren’s smiling face just felt wrong to him.

But what if that wasn’t his face? He thought. What if those smiles and childish remarks were a façade to get what he needed and then… leave?

Or maybe he just left early, a suddenly positive part of his mind inquired, and he closed the door before heading down the hallway and out the door at a fast walk.

~o0o~

Eren swam far out into the bay at high speed, unaware of where he was going, and with every push in the water with his tail he felt his heart grow colder and colder. He barely got out of the way in time for the large boat to glide by him and he swam lower into the depths, staring up at the continuing water craft from behind a few red and orange coral. He watched the boat until it disappeared in the distorted water, then turned around and swam in a random direction, stopping at the foggy, light teal endlessness that greeted him. He turned the other way and once again stopped at the endless blue. He felt so lost and upset. He had nowhere to run. The ocean was his home but the ocean was too large. Where was home within his home?

Instead of the familiarity he would’ve expected from cold stone and low glowing gemstones he used to recognize as home, he felt it was too cold. He had been greeted with a whole new feeling, warmth. Something he had only felt with family and from his own veins. Land had so, _so_ much warmth it was crazy. And now that he had lived in that warmth he couldn’t remember why the ocean felt so safe before. Had it ever?

He slowly sank to the sandy floor and looked up at the stirring surface. The sight had lost its appeal now that he had seen what was above those sloshing waves. It was annoying, not as calming as before. The sun was always moving and the sand was picking up and getting into his eyes. The ocean was too active, always moving with currents and waves and indignance. Land was _solid._ Land was _warm._ Land…

Land was home.

Eren’s cold heart wept as he wrapped his tail around himself and sat at the bottom of the sandy floor, letting the ocean push him about whichever way it pleased. When a particularly cold gust of water pushed him over onto his side he yelled out and swiped at it, sending another gust right back.

Then he swam. He swam back towards land, and when the sandy beach was in sight he veered to the left and started towards the cave they had first stayed in before meeting Isabel and Farlan. When he reached it he didn’t slow his fast speed and shot out of the water and heard a terrified yelp before tangling with another pair of limbs and rolling onto the hard stone.

“Eren?!” Eren opened his eyes and stared down into baby blue.

“Armin?”

“Oh my stars, Eren! You scared the Tartarus out of me!” Armin chastised and pushed Eren off him belligerently. Eren rolled over when he pushed him and immediately began changing his tail into legs again. When his legs were fully formed he curled up on his side and hugged them to his chest, staring at the wall indignantly.

“Eren! You have to warn me about that or I’ll go blind!” Armin turned to him again after wiping the white out of his eyes. “Why are you like this? What happened?”

Eren squeezed his legs to his chest harder. “I… we were going to go swimming at the beach but then I woke up in Levi’s bed so I got… I dunno, embarrassed, and started thinking about things and realized Levi didn’t talk to me so much before the full moon night and I thought… what if I seduced him into liking me? When you weren’t there? I just… I got upset and ran away without telling anyone.”

“Without telling anyone? Eren,” Armin placed a hand on his shoulder. But before Armin could continue Eren cut in.

“And then when I was swimming away I just got more upset… The ocean doesn’t even feel like home anymore…” Eren’s eyes watered. “It’s only been a few days and the ocean doesn’t feel like home anymore. I-I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” The brunette wiped at his eyes vigorously and Armin rubbed his arm gently.

“Oh Eren… You’ve got it all wrong. Levi hasn’t just recently been talking to you, he’s been interested in you since we first got here. I’ve seen it in the way he treats the people around you compared to when you’re not around. I’ve seen it when he carries you to bed and when you got stuck on the mast. And I’ve definitely seen it in the way he looks at you. Maybe your singing was just the thing to make him start actually acting on his feelings or maybe you really did seduce him, I can’t say for certain-“

“Wait wait-“ Eren sniffled and sat up to look back at him over his shoulder. “What do you mean? Feelings? What feelings? Any feelings he has for me must be from the song. What other reason could there be?”

“I don’t know humans all _that_ well but any idiot could notice how he was eyeing you this morning.” Armin gave him a knowing look and Eren turned away with a blush.

“It still doesn’t make any sense that a human male would want to court another male,” he mumbled with a shaky breath.

“Well like I said, I don’t know humans that well. Maybe humans have different mating morals than that of our kind. Although it is questionable how they would mate if that is something that they do. And what would come of the mating? Can human males be impregnated? I’ve not really thought about it-”

“Oh for Neptune’s sake please stop talking Armin!” Eren said before sitting up and leaning past Armin’s body to dunk his face in the cold cave water. When he came back up for air Armin gave him an empathetic look.

“Well we haven’t had time to brush up on human anatomy since you gave that book to Levi.” Eren sighed and glared at his blond friend, appreciating the fact that they were talking face to face instead of in his different form. “But that’s not important right now. What’s important is that you left the house without telling anyone and someone’s going to come looking. Let’s get you back to the beach.”

~o0o~

He couldn’t keep his fast pace for long. Once the cobble road branched off to the sand path to the beach he broke into a run. He found the same spot they had been at the day before and relief washed over him once he saw Eren’s tan form under the boulder’s shadow. Eren looked up from his lap and met his eyes biting his lip nervously. Levi began to control his breathing as he walked over to the brunette and plopped down in the sand next to him.

“You scared me half to death,” he said simply and leaned his head against the cooled stone.

“Sorry,” Eren replied. “I got upset about something and had to get out of the house.” Levi eyed the boy next to him who returned to peeling a piece of drift wood in his lap.

“Mind if I ask what got you upset?” Levi asked carefully. Eren took a deep breath and threw his piece of driftwood into the sand, burying it with a scoop of his palm then leaning back on the boulder as well. He turned his head and waited for Levi to meet his eyes before speaking.

“How do you feel about me?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't want to go on another 5 month haitus and this chapter was basically already written besides the end, so I decided to just post it ;w; Would love to hear what you think! ~ \\(; W ;)/


	19. He speaks Latin?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They go horseback riding!  
> Levi's POV~

Levi didn’t know what to say. He didn’t know the appropriate way to answer Eren’s question without damaging his image.

“Fuck my image,” he mumbled, and Eren’s face fell with confusion making Levi tsk and wiggle into a straighter sitting position. Levi floundered for a second, holding his hands up, opening and closing his mouth without saying anything. Eventually he sighed and let his hands fall with a shake of his head. “Fucking confused. That’s how I feel about you right now.”

“Confused?” Eren enquired, tilting his head at him with a concerned expression. Levi rubbed his face with his hands up into his hair and pulled his left knee up to rest his elbow on.

“Yes, confused. You just… you have to look at this situation from my perspective,” Levi said, gesturing to himself with a hand on his chest. “I’m out at sea eleven months out of twelve. I feel like it can’t be coincidence when a ragged, orphaned kid shows up out of nowhere needing food and shelter during the very short amount of time I come back to this specific place. It just doesn’t happen.” Eren lowered his head, looking down as he played with the sand beside him.

“Yeah but... that’s not all… right?” He asked tentatively, after a moment. Levi scoffed with a shake of his head in defeat.  _Might as well just tell him everything,_  he thought.  _Maybe it will make him leave faster, or at least avoid me._

“That’s not even the half of it. You have a random bird that somehow understands you, you’re ignorant and easy but also strong minded, you’re anxious and uneducated and the only reason I haven’t kicked you out yet is because you’re also terribly, captivatingly attractive. Both personality wise and… physically.” Levi cleared his throat at the end, avoiding eye contact throughout his monologue, but when Eren didn’t say anything he glanced over and his eyebrows rose in surprise when he found the brunette blushing profusely and staring down at the sand in shock.

The quiet between them grew awkward for Levi and he sighed through his nose before looking around the beach and leaning his head back on the stone, the shade from the boulder protecting them from the sun’s beating rays and the ocean air keeping them cool.

The ocean was very blue this afternoon. There were no seagulls out since the beach was empty of people and food, but there was a single small fishing boat out, gliding slowly to their left, heading back inside to port. Levi watched it and thought it cute compared to his magnificent  _Wings of Freedom._   _Wings of Freedom_  was a beautiful, dark mahogany ship with three decks and absolutely no rats or infestations. Levi would rather die than catch a plague from one of those disease-ridden rodents or poisonous spiders and bugs. After every delivery, the used areas were thoroughly swept and mopped, then the next load of cargo was put in place. His process was a bit longer than others, but precision paid, literally. He was tipped kindly for his standards.

Levi was brought out of his thoughts when he heard Eren mumble something, but it was so obscure that he missed it. “What was that?”

“Uhm… how… do you find me attractive?” Levi looked at him with furrowed eyebrows. He was still blushing, now fidgeting with his hands in his lap and squirming where he sat. When he glanced up and saw his look he waved his hands. “I-I mean… you’re male! Aren’t you supposed to like females?”

“Oh,” Levi scoffed, looking away with a shake of his head. Of course. “I  _like_  men  _and_  women. Though, I like men more. I’m guessing by your question that means you don’t return the feeling.” He pushed himself off the sand and brushed off his pants. “Sorry if I made things awkward for you-“

“No!” Levi was cut off by both of Eren’s hands grasping onto one of his own and he looked down at a surprising sight. Eren’s cheeks were reddened with embarrassment but eyes vibrant with frustration and determination. “That’s not what I meant! I just… I didn’t know that was… something you could do…” He broke eye contact, looking at the ground with a furrowed brow but also squeezing his hand. “Where I’m from it’s always been males with females. I just… didn’t know…” He sighed and tugged Levi’s hand, prompting him to sit back down next to the brunette, which he did. “I got upset because I didn’t know what made you so nice to me all of a sudden. I got scared that I…” He suddenly froze and tugged his hands away with a terrified expression. Levi didn’t like that he had to let go of those soft hands, but he let him slip away.

“You got scared that you… what?”

“That I… I… I can’t tell you… It’s… nothing.” Eren looked everywhere but at him and Levi narrowed his eyes at the younger.

“That’s another thing.” Eren glanced at him nervously while wringing his hands together. “You horribly secretive. It’s obvious that you’re lying about things. I can easily tell.” Eren stared at him with such a scared expression he almost wanted to take his words back just to make it go away. Eren started to speak erratically and stutter over his words.

“I-I-I… j-just- it’s- there’s this thing- about me- it doesn’t put you in danger or anything! It’s just something about myself that… you wouldn’t believe and you would think it’s strange and… it’s just better if you didn’t know… right now…” The brunette sighed and looked down in trembling defeat. “I’m sorry I just can’t tell you.” Levi stared at the boy’s scared face and inwardly sighed.

The conversation had somehow put Levi’s mind at ease a bit, putting all the cards on the table and talking about it. Eren’s face was an open book to his emotions and Levi could tell he was truly sorry, so he decided to not push the brunette further on his secret. His words were vague and hinting, but it was too bright a day for such a sad face.

“Alright. I won’t push you.” Eren looked up at him in surprise and Levi tilted his head at him.

"Re-… Really?”

“You said it wouldn’t put me in danger, right? So, there’s no need to push you to tell me if you don’t want to.” Eren’s eyes quivered and he smiled big before launching forward and hugging the raven, squeezing a grunt out of him.

“ _Thank you,_ ” he whispered. Levi cleared his throat and patted him on the back hesitantly. He wasn’t hugged very often. Eren’s damp hair tickled his face and the raven couldn’t help but rub his cheek against it before Eren pulled back and smiled at him again.

“ _Yoohoo!_ ” Levi froze and slowly peeked around the boulder to the source of that terrible voice. Hanji came running down the sand path waving a hand in their direction and Eren also peeked around the boulder, waving a hand at her while smiling when he saw who it was. Levi groaned and went limp against the stone as she rounded the boulder and kicked up sand skidding to a stop. She put her hands on her hips and leaned down to look at the two sitting in the shade. “Well well well!” She chuckled and Levi sighed deeply. “What do we have heeere~? Was I interrupting something?” Levi opened his eyes to glare at the red-head and her stupid smirking face.

“No Hanji, we were just talking,” Eren replied with an innocent smile on his face, even though he was still on his hands and knees from when he had to stretch over and peer around the boulder, basically on top of Levi. Luckily, he sat down before Levi made him and Hanji hummed in teasing acknowledgement.

“Pft, of course that was all! I just came to tell you two that I’m going horseback riding with you! Also that Farlan and Isabel aren’t going to be coming to the beach because they wanted you two- er they wanted to spend time together after the big announcement!”  
Eren blinked and tilted his head in confusion. “What big announcement?”

“What?! Levi you didn’t tell him?!” Levi raised a hand and opened his mouth to retort but Hanji just kept going. “Isabel is pregnant!”

“Isabel is pregnant…?” Eren paused. “Oh, pregnant!” His eyes widened and he smiled widely. “Oh that’s great news! …Right?”

“Yes yes yes!” Hanji jumped up an down and pumped her fists. “She’s going to have a little her or Farlan running around in a few months!”

“That’s great! I’m so happy for them…” Eren suddenly paused and looked down in thought and Levi tilted his head at him.

“Eren?” Eren straightened at his name and laughed nervously.

“No! I mean- yes, of course! It’s nothing. Should we be heading out for horseback riding now?” The brunette said, standing up.  _What’s nothing?_  Levi thought, standing up as well.  _What were you suddenly thinking about?_

“Yeah, let’s go! When we get to the stables you can meet all the horses and ride them and feed them sugar cubes- of course you’ll have to maybe clean a stall or two since the stable manager is a bit demanding…” Hanji babbled as Eren retrieved his bag and pulled on his shirt and they started walking towards the house. When they got there the three changed into better clothes for horseback riding under the hot sun, Hanji using some of Isabel’s clothes. Isabel and Farlan had already left apparently, so they locked the house before leaving. While they were walking into town Hanji suddenly asked about Armin.

“Where’s your little feathered friend Eren? You didn’t lose him did you?!” she exclaimed.

“Oh uh… he went for a fly. Don’t worry, sometimes he goes off but he always comes back, no matter where I am.” Levi found that to be a terrible excuse but both he and Hanji didn’t ask about it again.

The stables had many horses of different breeds. Only a few were up for sale, most were payed to be taken care of. Eren was enchanted with the domesticated beasts, but he was hesitant to touch them at first. With much urging from Hanji, Eren patted the nose of a creamy, brown patched mare with light blonde hair that threw her head in response to his touch. Eren visibly flinched away when the excited horse moved but then smiled wide when he realized it was with good intentions and started petting her face with new vigor.

Levi paid the stable owner for a ride for the three of them, specifically requesting the mare Eren had already grown attached to as well. Levi saddled up a tall, sturdy, pitch black stallion with white socked feet and a white stripped nose. Hanji, of course, chose the most strangely colored horse of them all; a classic silver dapple. It had light blonde hair and a brown coat with black feet and light speckles lining the shoulders and along the sides.

They saddled up and got into some riding shoes then led the horses out to the large open field pasture, bypassing the smaller riding rink for beginners. Levi only had that day to ride and decided that since the horses were so well trained they could teach Eren the basics on how to control the horse in the bigger pasture and get to the actual riding quicker.

They brought the horses into the pasture and Levi demonstrated getting on his horse, though he needed to use a wooden block since the horse was so tall, a fact that Hanji was kind enough to point out and giggle about with Eren. Levi answered by driving his horse forward and kicking up sand at the two brunettes up to their chests. He trotted off with a scowl before spurring his horse into a gallop and relished in the strain of his thighs and bounce in his stride. When he rounded back Eren was on his horse listening to Hanji’s tips and instructions but his attention was drawn to Levi as he sped by, the older male’s lips twitching into a smirk at the look of awe that grew on his face.

Levi turned his attention back to his horse and road far out into the pasture. The sound of hard hooves on soft grass and his horse’s pants filling his ears, as well as the feeling of wind on his face lacking the sharp taste of salt was extremely refreshing.

The sensation of being home was a feeling he savored. After spending most all the year away in different continents and cultures; Isabel, Farlan and Sina were like a forgotten dream revived after coming back. While the memories were always calming ones, he could never immediately adjust to the feeling of solid ground under his feet, contradicting the ever-wobbling floorboards of his  _Wings of of Freedom._  Not just in Sina, but on all the places he docked and walked on land he felt like an alien to his own race.

Every year people got fancier; more manners, more politics and technology. Trends changed unbeknownst to him on the ever-moving seas. It was frustrating. His crew was always changing, aside from those who were trying to escape the world anyway as well as his trusted seniors.

The sight of Eren’s patched horse blundering past him and the thrumming of loud hoofbeats brought Levi out of his reverie and he watched as Eren and his mare galloped overenthusiastically along the fence of the pasture, a huge smile plastered on the brunette’s face as he laughed in excitement. Hanji came up behind him just as fast on her own mare and whooped in glee as she chased after the kid. Levi watched them with idle regard as they circled around with his horse at a walk, enjoying the sunny day and warm breeze, that is until Hanji poked him hard in the side as she passed again and ran off with a crazed giggle. He hesitated a moment to realize what she did before spurring his horse into a gallop and chasing after her.

Unfortunately, Levi’s horse wasn’t as light as Hanji’s mare and he couldn’t quite catch up with her, but he did manage to trap her in one of the rounded corners of the prairie. Just as he was about to close in, Eren’s mare cut in between them, the boy laughing in absolute joy as it rose up on its back legs and kicked the air in front of it. Hanji slipped out behind him with a shout of triumph while Levi backed his horse up to avoid the equine’s kicks. To Levi, it looked like Eren had absolutely no control over his horse but the boy just kept smiling like this was the best thing in the world to be doing while also shouting at his horse desperately trying to get her to calm down. What Levi didn’t realize was that his words were in a different language.

“ _Tranquillitas,_  Marie!  _Tranquillitas!_ ” he cried and Levi squinted at the brunette in confusion.

“Is that Latin?” he asked, pulling on his horse’s reins and patting its neck. Eren stared at him for a second in confusion before looking between him and the horse and smiling.

“Yes, Marie likes it when I speak to her so,” he said. His horse’s fidgeting and constant shifting settled when he patted her neck and whispered to her again. Levi still looked at him in confusion.

“How do you know Latin?” he questioned and Eren looked up at him like a deer that had heard a twig crack underfoot. His face softened and he smiled a little before looking away.

“My mother taught me when I was young,” he said. His horse, Marie, whinnied and shook her mane and Eren took that as her wanting to run again. “ _Curre!_ ” he said with a kick to her sides and a whip of the reins and she darted off into a run, leaving Levi perplexed at the short conversation.

Eventually Eren’s horse started to tire from their constant running and jumping around and they brought they’re horses back to their stalls. Levi instructed Eren on how to brush them down and their hands grazed when the raven handed over the brush. Eren blushed at the contact and Levi realized he must have been thinking about what they talked about that morning. He promptly turned away and refilled his horses hay rack and water trough, unable to stare at his red face a second longer without his heart beating out of his chest.

When they finally finished the brushing and feeding Eren and Hanji fed their horses a few too many sugar cubes before saying goodbye and beginning their journey back home. Eren had whispered a few things to his horse before they left and she nuzzled his chest and whinnied loud when they finally walked out, the brunette looking desolate ever since.

“Will we come back and ride them again?” he asked when the stables disappeared over the hill.

“Sure you can! I’m sure Isabel and Farlan would love to take you in the future!” Hanji said optimistically, but Eren just looked confused.

“Won’t you come too?” He questioned and at this Hanji hesitated.

“Ehh… Me and Levi are going back out to sea the day after tomorrow. We  _would_  ride with you again tomorrow kiddo, but we’ll be busy giving the ship last minute revisions…”

“You’re leaving?” Eren stopped walking and Hanji and Levi stopped a couple steps after to turn and look back at him. Levi’s heart suddenly felt heavy when Eren looked at him like a puppy in the rain. Clouds had even started to gather, shielding the sun and covering them in light shadow.

“Well, yeah… but don’t worry! You’ll still have Isabel and Farlan’s company, and they’re having a little one coming soon so…”

“But…” he looked between the two of them and Levi couldn’t stand the guilt pumping through his veins and making him nauseous, so he turned around and started back down the path.

“Come on kid, we can talk about it when we get home,” he said and Hanji gave Eren a sympathetic before turning and following him, Eren catching up after a few steps.

The walk home was quiet. Eren’s mood had dropped and so Hanji and Levi’s had as well; Hanji, for once, staying quiet. When they reached the house they found Isabel on the porch with Armin sitting on the railing; her feeding him little crackers and him jumping and chirping around on the rail. When she looked up she waved with a smile but hesitated at the groups somber aura.

“Hey you three. How was the horseback riding?” she asked, her face twisting in confusion at Eren’s kicked puppy look.

“It was great!” the brunette said with a strained smile. “I had lots of fun. I’m going to go change though, so if you’ll excuse me…” Eren picked up Armin and placed him on his shoulder before hurrying into the cabin and leaving the three in their silence.

When the door closed Isabel turned and slapped Levi on the arm with a glare.

“What did you do?!” she snapped and Levi stepped back with a grunt.

“I didn’t do anything. Hanji was the one who told him we would be leaving day after tomorrow.”

“And now he’s down about it, but I just assumed he knew!”

“Why would you assume that? I don’t normally go around telling everyone my schedule,” he growled.

“Enough you two,” Isabel said with a sigh. Levi tch’ed and leaned against the house, crossing his arms in dissatisfaction. Hanji jumped up to sit on the railing and rester her elbows on her knees and chin in her hand and they all watched the sun start to set on the horizon, turning the ocean a beautiful shade of sparkling orange but Levi couldn’t bring himself to enjoy it, he’d seen it a thousand times.

But he’d never seen sadness reflected in someone’s eyes that way before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I read a thing about "the signs as mermaids" and found Eren's sign totally different from my version of him and wanted to just scrap this whole fic because of it, but like my version is just as good. I can make another mermaid fic like that some other day when I've finished this one ;w;  
> Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated! (; v ;) ~ <3


	20. I Want to Go With You!

Eren didn’t come back out of his room except when Isabel peeked in and called him for dinner which he ate without his usual enthusiasm and a hard, thoughtful expression. Hanji decided to stay for the food and kept up the conversation, or at least tried what with Eren’s short answers or hums of acknowledgement. Armin was absent and when asked about him, the brunette replied vaguely; “sleeping,” and when he finished eating he helped clean the dishes with Isabel before going straight back to his room.

Levi watched over it all irritably.

“He sure is confusing…” Isabel commented, sitting down at the table with a fresh cup of tea.

“Just earlier today he was blinding me with his sunshiny attitude! But now he’s downer than a drunkard in the dumps,” Hanji exclaimed. She glanced over at Levi, who was absently staring out the window above the stove and hummed with a frown. “You must have noticed as well since you didn’t comment on my metaphor.” At this Levi looked over at her with a blank expression but no comment.

“I wonder what he’s thinking so hard about,” Isabel said, rubbing her tea cup with a subtle finger.

“Maybe about something from his past?”

“Could be, seeing that we don’t know him all that well…”

“He seems like a nice kid, but maybe we were too hasty in taking him in,” Farlan supposed in a nervous tone. “What with the baby coming and all.”

“Maybe he’s thinking the same thing,” Levi added.

“So he thinks he’s becoming a burden then?” Hanji guessed.

“Maybe we should ask him?” Farlan said.

“Why don’t we ask him tomorrow,” Isabel said, halting the oncoming questions. “We can all sleep on it.” They all nodded, besides Levi who was preoccupied thinking to himself.

“Well then, if that’s settled…” Hanji said before squishing her cheeks between her hands and leaning forward on the table on her elbows. “Do you mind if I borrow your couch for another night?” She asked with a big, enthusiastic smile, and Isabel giggled.

“Of course! Your name is practically stitched in the cushions at this point!”

“If it was I would burn the damn thing,” Levi mumbled.

“I feel so loved,” Hanji laughed, ignoring his comment.

 ~o0o~

Eren stared out of his window into the forest of palm trees with his head rested on crossed arms and a deep frown lining his face. He had been doing a lot of thinking, as well as reading, with Armin in his room, about all that had transpired over the last few days. He thought a lot about his time living with the humans; their activities, what they ate, and what they talked about.

There are very few leisure activities when on your own in the ocean when you’re mainly focused on hunting and finding safe places to rest. While in a group, or even a society, there are jobs and classes which is hard to determine if better or worse than being on your own.

In a large group of mermaids there was hardly any exploring for fear of predators and the younger mermaids were discouraged from playing with each other, to keep up the separate classes. Some were guards, some were hunters, and the mermaid’s who started the society were designated as royalty, but most of the nonworking population would be upholding their class; flaunting off their bodies decorated in gold and jewels and otherwise doing nothing with their everlasting freetime.

Besides upholding class, the mermaid species’ second favorite thing to do was find a mate and reproduce, mating with a mermaid of a higher class being an extra bonus. What Eren found so repulsing about it was that his group had thrown away their morals of falling in love with your mate first. He’d had more than several female mermaids whom he’d not even known the name of approach him and offer partnership.

The ocean was very cold, in more ways than one.

Eren had a lot of learning to do about the humans but he was already more invested in land than the ocean. On land there was constant life, activity and freedom. The air was warm, the sand was soft, and the humans that thrived there were just as lively as they were confusing.

But as much as he wanted to be a part of their world his soul was still tied to the ocean. Even when they were horseback riding Eren could feel a hungry twinge in the back of his brain to get back to the water. It was a constant reminder that he was still a stranger to the warm world that was land and that he could probably never trust any human with the secret of what he really was. It frustrated him to no end to think he could never truly be himself on land.

And besides all that, there was Levi...

Levi had said he had found him _attractive,_ that he liked _males_ more than _females,_ which still boggled Eren's mind. He didn't know where to start with the questions that arose with a partnership between two males. Is it normal for human males to mate? How? Could human males have children?  _How?_ It was all so confusing, it was unheard of where he came from. Even so... he was flattered that such an attractive male would find an interest in him in the first place.

From their time spent together he had seen that Levi was quiet, but also crude and acted with harsh authority when around his subordinates, but he really did care about those close to him. Like how he put Hanji to bed and covered her with blankets even though he found her annoying, and how he admitted he was concerned when Eren left without telling anyone. How he bandaged Eren's leg even though the cut wasn't that deep. How he said he would be there if he ever had a bad dream and wanted to talk about it. How he let him sleep in his bed because he left his window open...

A bird made a ruckus in the trees a ways off and Eren blinked back into reality at the commotion before looking over at his friend. Armin was feeling better after a long day of just being himself and had taken to reading a book about sailing. The brunette studied the boat sketched along both pages of the book and a thought came to him.

What if he went with him?

Excitement rushed over him as he thought about it. He could travel with them to the next land! He couldn’t even begin to think of the new things he could see and experience. And he could do it _with_ Levi...

“Armin, I want to go!” He exclaimed and his feathered friend looked up at him with a squeak in surprise at his volume.

“Okay firstly, lower your voice,” he said with a ruffle of his feathers. “And, what do you mean? Where? I thought you liked it here…”

“I do! But… Levi is leaving on his ship the day after tomorrow and… I want to go too!”

“Is this because you’ve taken a liking to him or…?”

“No!” Eren paused. “Well… that might be… part of it…”

“It would explain why you’ve been so upset since you returned from horseback riding.”

Eren grabbed a pillow and squeezed it to his chest as he sighed, a light blush blooming on his cheeks. “This morning… me and Levi talked, and he said he… well…" He giggled to let out the energy pent up in his chest. "He said he found me attractive…”

“ _Whaaat?!_ But he’s a male!”

“That’s what I said! But when I did he started to leave, a-and I panicked and grabbed his hand and almost spilled that I thought the only reason he liked me all of a sudden was because of the _song…_ ”

“Oh no Eren- “

“And he got suspicious and apparently he could tell I was being secretive from the beginning- “

_“Eren- “_

“But when I told him I really couldn’t tell him and that I was sorry he…” Eren paused, squeezing the pillow harder.

“He what?”

“He just… accepted it… he said he wouldn’t push me to talk about it.” The brunette started blushing down at the bed with a dreamy expression and a wobbly smile.

“Why didn’t you tell me all this when you got back?”

“I’ve just been thinking about it all and what I want to do next… There has to be something next right?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I want to explore! That’s what we came on land to do right? Isabel and Farlan are nice but… they have a baby coming. I don’t want them to take care of me too.”

“A baby.” Armin sighed as heavily as his little bird lungs would allow. “I leave you for one day and all the important things transpire…” Eren hummed and looked down at the sketch stretched on both pages of the sailing book.

“If we went with Levi and Hanji, we could visit new lands and always be surrounded by the ocean so if we ever get caught we can just jump overboard!” Armin thought about it and hummed as well.

“That is true, but there is also the fact that it will be harder to get off the boat to go for a swim, at least it will be harder for you. I could just slip away since I’m small and easily forgotten but… you…”

“I can also slip away during the night! I’m sure after all that sailing during the day everyone would be too tired to notice...”

“But… if we do get caught and need to evacuate, we’ll be stranded in the middle of the ocean! You know the kinds of creatures that roam there, things like sharks or giant octopi or-“

“Dolphins and whales and orcas! I can't wait to see them! And sharks are nothing I can’t take on! Even without my powers!” Armin still gave him a skeptical look. “Well, we could at least try! If it doesn’t look so good early on, we can just jump overboard and swim back here.” He looked at his friend with big, hopeful eyes until Armin sighed once again before chirping a laugh.

“Sure, lets give it a try.”

“Yes! I can’t wait to ask Levi tomorrow!”

“You… haven’t asked?”

“Well no… but I’m sure he’ll let us come! He said his ship deals in trade, so he shouldn’t be dealing with anything dangerous right?”

Armin looked down with a hum and a calculating look in his little black eyes.

He wasn’t so sure Levi would be as delighted about the idea as his joyous best friend.

~o0o~

The next morning Eren was in a much better mood.

Armin had slipped off for another swim but Eren had decided against it since he had some time in the water that morning and wasn’t quite feeling the craving as much as before. He awoke to the sound of tapping at his window and let Armin back in sometime at daybreak, quickly closing the window after him and snuggling back into his blankets to escape the cold.

He slept for another hour before being once again awakened by Armin. He slipped out of bed, changed his clothes and grabbed the book about sailing before placing his friend on his shoulder and heading out to the living room. He peeked into the kitchen on his way and found it vacant of people, meaning he was the first to wake up. He grabbed an apple from the bowl next to the stove and proceeded, finding Hanji once again passed out on the couch, the blankets strewn all over the place and her shirt pulled up, showing her stomach.

Placing his book and apple on the table in front of the smoldering fireplace, he crossed over to the snoring woman and pulled her shirt down before pulling the blanket up to her chin and smiling at her slumberous snorts.

He went over to the fireplace and threw in a couple more logs before curling up in one of the chairs, biting into his apple and opening his book. He rested the book on his knee while he worked on his apple, enjoying the crunch and juiciness that was so wonderfully different from the bland, salty foods from the sea.

Eventually he heard footsteps and then a commotion in the kitchen, meaning Isabel had risen and was starting on breakfast and he closed his book and placed it down before getting up, taking his finished apple core, and heading to the kitchen to greet her.

She was busy starting up the stove and he felt a sliver of guilt creep into his heart. Dinner had been very unenthusiastic the night before, compared to previous nights, and he realized it was simply because of his conflicted mood. However now that he had made up his mind of what he wanted to do, he was much more chipper and ready to converse and quietly took his seat at the table.

“Good morning Isabel!” He chirped with a smile and Isabel turned around drowsily, her hair mused and unbrushed and her sleepy green eyes focused on him.

“Oh, good morning Eren…” she said hesitantly.

“Did you sleep okay? You look kind of tired,” Eren asked and Isabel’s sigh morphed into a yawn halfway through.

“I woke up to the wonderful urges of morning sickness.” The woman groaned down at the stove in despair. “I want to make breakfast but just thinking of food is making me feel sick again…” She noticed his apple core, then the juices all over his face and laughed. “Maybe I should take your lead and make a simpler breakfast.” Eren look down to his apple core and smiled up at her.

“If it’s easier for you!” Isabel took his core to throw out and gave him a rag to wipe his face with and he did so gladly. “What can you make with fruits though?” He asked. He adored all the food on land and was excited to try whatever Isabel put on a plate.

“Well, maybe a fruit salad, or steamed apples, or apple pie, but it’s breakfast and pie takes quite some time to make... We’re well stocked on fruits since we heard Levi was coming back a few days ago, so I’ll make some fruit salad. Maybe I’ll make a pie tonight since he leaves tomorrow morning…” Eren was smiling excitedly while she spoke her thoughts and a look of determination settled on his face when he was again reminded of how Levi was leaving.

“Isabel… Do you mind if I pick your mind about something?” He asked tentatively. Isabel paused and set down the fruits she was pulling out of a cupboard before pulling out a chair and sitting next to him.

“Of course not, what’s on your mind?”

“Well… I think first I should apologize for being so out of touch last night at dinner…”

“It’s alright Eren, we all have stuff on our mind’s sometimes.”

“Right, well, I was conflicted about what I wanted to do now that I’m… here.” _On land,_ was what he would have finished with. “I was thinking… do you think Levi would mind if I left with him?” A look of shock crossed Isabel’s face and she looked to the archway as if someone might overhear.

“Eren… if this is about the baby it’s still okay for you to stay here, we really don’t mind your company-“

“No that’s not it!” Eren cut in. “Well… that’s partially it…” The brunette glanced at Armin on his shoulder before looking Isabel in the eyes and continuing. “I know I’m already a handful as it is. I don’t know what to do on my own right now, and even though in the nine months it would take to have the baby I believe I would become independent enough so you wouldn’t be worried I would still put more pressure on you and you don’t need that with a baby coming. But I also didn’t come here just to stay in one place! I want to travel places and see new things! Like mountains and volcanoes and castles and zebras!” The look of pure determination and excitement in Eren’s turquoise eye’s had Isabel impressed and excited _for_ him and she giggled.

“You sound like you mean it!” She exclaimed through a chuckle, but then her lips turned down in a sad frown. “I’m not sure if Levi will take you though…” She wasn’t just unsure, she was downright _positive_ that he wouldn’t. But Eren looked so excited…

“I won’t take him where?” A voice all too recognizable asked from the archway and Isabel looked over to him in fear.

“Take him… uhm… you see he-“

“Levi, I want to go with you!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love these boys so much ;w; Sometimes I forget I love them, then I see their faces and read a hella good fic and just love them three times harder ;W; Sorry for the very late update


	21. Don't Say Yes

It was concerning how the first thought that came to him wasn’t “no”. Unfortunately, his first thought was of Eren in one of his crew uniforms. Then it was Eren in his uniform sitting on his bed in his quarters with a beautiful blush and the light from the windows silhouetting him not coming even slightly close to the brightness of his smile. 

He had to force himself to say it, and when he did, he instantly regretted it.

“Absolutely not.” Suddenly the room was cold, because the fiery light in Eren’s eyes was tarnished by his icy rejection, and he looked heartbroken. But then the room was humid and thick when the boy stood up, the chair rubbing the wood on the floor and Armin letting out a sound of alarm from the harsh movement before trying to regain his balance as Eren stared at him with eyes filled with emotion.

“Why not?” He demanded, and this Eren was one of which he hadn’t seen before. His whole being was lit up with unseen energy and he held a look of barely controlled anger, greatly contrasting his usual happy glow or embarrassed guise. Levi’s expression hardened at his retaliation and he crossed his arms, affirming his position in the archway.

“For multiple reasons. One, the _Wings of Freedom_ isn’t a cruise ship, it a merchant ship, we don’t take passengers even with pay. Secondly, if we’re lucky and deliver our shipment then get another shipment that needs to come right back here, the soonest I could be back would be in three months, at worst four. Finally, the seas are dangerous. There are pirates and sharks and I won’t risk you falling overboard and dying prematurely.” The more he spoke the more his resolve to not take him strengthened. Even so, Eren still looked at him with those fierce, determined eyes and he knew this would be a harder battle than not to keep saying no.

“What if I join the crew? I’ll work for it-“

“I doubt you have the kind of sailing experience that the _Wings of Freedom_ needs. Even if you did, I don’t need anymore useless crew members, I just bought a ton of them from the last city I stopped at.” Eren was visibly shaking with some unknown emotion and Isabel looked between them with fearful wariness.

“I’m not useless! You don’t know me! You don’t know what I can do! I can't believe I thought...” He growled in angry frustration before pushing past Levi and heading for the front door, grumbling along the way. _“Quid audes dicere Im 'inutilem? Homines stulti...”_ Isabel got up in a rush and followed him to the door.

“Wait Eren! Where are you going?!”

“ _Nos paenitet,_ Isabel. I’ll be back...” He didn’t say when.

He shut the door slightly less hard than a slam and everything went quiet. Isabel turned to look at him in disappointed scorn.

“All my points were valid,” he said, waving his hand through the air blandly.

“ _Sure_ they were! From a practical point of view, but I’m surprised after all that talk about _liking_ him that you would go so far as to force yourself to say no to him.” She walked past him into the kitchen and began pulling out fruits and the supplies to make coffee.

“Isabel… he can’t go,” he said, his voice slightly wavering.

“Why not? Because of what we used to do?” Levi frowned at her bringing the subject up so bluntly. “That was a long time ago, we’re better people now. Life is better. It’s a _merchant_ ship, the worst that could happen would be him falling off the railing and even then you could save him before he drowns or gets out of reach and that’s the worst that could happen because I know you wouldn’t let anyone touch him if you got raided.” She ground up the coffee beans and put water in the kettle to boil before pulling out various fruits, a strainer and a bowl and started cutting them up in neat, bite sized slices.

“Isabel…” he said, almost pleadingly, but Isabel was ranting.

“And all the new crew members are basically novices, they always are when they’re young. There’s no reason you couldn’t take another one. Hell, you wouldn’t even have to pay _him._ ” She continued ranting while throwing the chopped-up fruits in the bowl, making Levi feel smaller as she went. “You’re hurting him for no reason, and even if you _still_ don’t want him to go after _everything_ I just said, you need to settle this before you leave because I won’t have him low and out until the next time you show up and he tries to avoid you. He _really_ likes you Levi. You need to fix this.” She washed the fruit bits in the strainer then dumped them in the bowl before cleaning the knife, the cutting board and the strainer and putting them on the rack to dry.

Levi took a seat at the table as she started on the tea and continued with the coffee and sighed heavily with his head in his hands. He had messed up, probably very badly, and he had every intention of talking and making up with Eren, but he still had the resolve to force himself to say no, no matter what excuse anyone came up with.

He didn’t want what happened when he was younger to happen to Eren. He just couldn’t bear to think of him on the receiving end of a care free pirate’s blade on a criminal high because he just _knew_ that was what would happen. They were a _merchant’s ship_ after all. They carried rare goods more often than not. He couldn’t count on two hands the amount of times they had been raided since he became a captain of the _Wings of Freedom_ all those years ago.

Even so… his reputation proceeded him as he couldn’t count on either hand how many times the raids had been successful, because none of them had. The _Wings of Freedom_ always set sail from a raid relatively unscathed under his watch.

But even so, he wouldn’t risk Eren’s life.

Isabel set the large bowl of fruit salad and two fresh cups tea down on the table and handed him a fork, which he took with a sigh.

“Isabel, with the amount of raids on the ship that happen every time I leave he could get hurt or even killed and I’m not willing to put his life at risk.” The red head’s eyes softened at his words and she sighed as well as she picked out a banana slice and popped it into her mouth.

“Either way, make it right.”

“I’ll try… I’ve never seen him like that before.”

“What, angry? People usually are when they get their dreams crushed.” Levi winced and Isabel mumbled a short apology. “He’s only been here a few days, of course there’s more to him than meets the eye.”

“And to make it worse I told him yesterday that I…” The older male trailed off and poked at a grape.

“You…?” She prompted.

“I… confessed, in a sense.”

“Oh no… that poor baby.”

“Him? What about me? _”_

“ _You’re_ in the wrong. _He’s_ the poor baby.”

“Who’s a poor baby?” Hanji asked as she stood in the archway, rubbing her eye and Levi growled.

“None of your fucking business.”

“It was kind of a rhetorical question.” The woman shrugged. “Now… what did he do?” Hanji asked as she plopped down in one of the chairs and stole Levi’s fork out of his hand to start eating the salad. Levi grumbled at the action but was too down to eat anyway, so he let her have it.

“Eren wanted to go with you two when you left, but Levi shut him down and he ran out the front door.”

“So that’s what woke me up!” She exclaimed with a mouth full of watermelon. “Levi how could you!”

“I’m not taking him Hanji.” He replied sternly, cringing at the woman talking with her mouth full. “You know better than Isabel how dangerous it is out on the open sea.”

“ _Of course_ I know, but even though I didn’t hear all of it I’m sure you were too harsh.”

“I mean, not really.” Isabel contested. “There’s no easy way to turn down that kind of request. But he does need to apologize and make it right before you leave.”

“Don’t worry,” Levi said. “I plan on it.”

“I’m not,” Isabel said coolly. “I _know_ you will. Because if you don’t then I’m not making you pie before you go.”

“Pie! Ohhh yes!” Hanji exclaimed with tons of fruit slices in her mouth. “This is why we need to take longer visits on land!”

“Next time we come back we’ll extend the stay.” Levi promised, and Isabel beamed.

“Good. It’d be nice to see you two more than twice a year.”

~o0o~

Eren’s streaked through the water in a blur of bubbles and green-blue molded scales, heading toward their cave with a frown lined deep on his face.

Why in Tartarus couldn’t he go? He knew the ocean and it’s dangers better than any human _ever_ would! He had fought sharks and played with sea lions that were three times Levi’s size! He could choke a human to death with the strength of his tail alone! He could boil the water around a whole ship and set it on fire with electricity from the sky! He could sink a ship FULL of humans if he wanted and all he had to do was bite down-

“EREN STOP!” Armin’s voice cut through his clouded mind and he realized he was growling ferociously, the fleshy part of his thumb nearly in his mouth and his heart beating loudly in his chest.

He had almost done it. He had almost used his powers.

He pulled the rest of himself up on the stone his torso was leaned on and laid on his side as tears burned his eyes. He curled his tail around himself and sobbed in broken bursts.

“I’m sorry Armin, it’s just not fair! None of it is! None of it…” He felt Armin pull himself up onto the stone and start stroking his shoulder.

“Oh Eren… it’s okay…”

“It’s not okay! He won’t take us! We’re never going to get anywhere because we’re ignorant and new! I was stupid to think that he’d take us. I was stupid to think that he liked me…”

“Eren, that’s not true,” Armin said seriously. “Couldn’t you tell he was forcing himself to say no?” Eren paused, pulling his face out from his hands and wiping his eyes as he looked up at Armin while sniffling.

“No way… how could you tell?” Armin huffed.

“Eren, we’ve already established at this point that he really likes you, at least in some sort of way… and right after you asked he looked pretty hopeful about it but then he just shut down and... He might just want to protect you from whatever caused him to look so troubled.” Eren thought about it and yes… he did feel hopeful at the thoughtful expression that Levi got when he asked, but that hope was lost in the fog of his anger and he completely forgot about it. The brunette wiped his eyes further as he sat up on the smooth stone.

“Even if that’s true…”

“You still want to go?”

“He said he found me attractive!”

“And you find _him_ attractive?” Eren blushed and a conflicted expression took over his face.

“Well… I’m flattered that such a handsome human male would take interest in me…”

“So you do?”

“Well yes… but Armin, we’ve met the crew on that ship and I trust Levi! Even though he really hurt me just now… but if what you said is true, I don’t think I could feel safe going to new lands on any other ship…”

“Yeah… I saw something yesterday that really shook me up actually.”

“Oh Tartarus… what happened?”

“Well I heard a commotion by the docks while I was cleaning my scales and decided to go check it out. There was a new ship that came into port and a group of humans were dragging this younger human off it in a really rough manner. I snuck under the dock to overhear and they called the younger human a ‘stowaway’. Apparently, he had snuck on the ship before they left and they took him with them on accident. They said…” Armin paused, looking bothered.

“What did they say Armin?”

“Well, they said they found him really late into the journey and if they weren’t so close to land, they would have thrown him overboard, or left him in a skiff to find his own way to land…” Eren shared his anxious look. Thrown overboard? A human would surely get killed out on the open seas on just a small boat… but…

“Levi…” Eren sucked in a breath. “Levi wouldn’t do that to us!” Eren said firmly. “And even if he did we are literally sitting here with our tails out! We could just swim!” Armin was surprised at his outburst and laughed out loud when he finished. Eren paused at his laughter before giggling himself.

“What’s so funny?” Armin smiled at the clueless brunette.

“I’m just glad you’re my best friend.” Eren smiled and ruffled his blonde hair.

“I’m glad you’re my best friend too.” They chuckled a little longer before Eren’s attention was drawn to his glittering ring. An idea formed in his head and he steeled himself in determination.

Levi said he liked him, that he found him attractive. He cared in his own way and Eren was sure he wouldn’t feel safer on the sea on any other ship than the raven’s.

He would do anything. He would learn, he would work, he would _try,_ because he had nothing left to live for but what they were doing then, and he wouldn’t wish to be doing anything else.

“Armin,” Eren said as he twiddled with the ring and his friend’s sky blue eyes gave him his attention. “How good is your memory on invisibility magic?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Quid audes dicere Im 'inutilem? Homines stulti...”  
> "How dare you say I'm useless! Stupid human..."
> 
> "Nos paenitet, Isabel."  
> "Sorry, Isabel."
> 
> *insert 'another one' meme here*


	22. Apology

[[X]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPY5uu4SntI%20)

They came back late. Eren needed time with his tail out to relax and rejuvenate, so he and Armin swam a bit farther out of the bay and discovered a group of orcas hunting for salmon and watching after their young. Eren would have used his ring to understand their language, but he decided to conserve its energy for more serious situations that were bound to come and was content with having Armin translate on the rare occasion that he needed to.

They twisted and rolled with the calves, holding onto their slippery protruding back fins as they breached the surface in excited bouts of play. They hunted and chased after schools of fish until they ran into another group of dolphins and the fun doubled a sizable amount. Eren also couldn’t understand the dolphins, but Armin was too busy having long conversations with them to translate so he was constantly surrounded and chased after by the calves, labeled as the more fun of the two newcomers. Eventually however, they realized the ocean around them getting darker and signal the setting of the sun so they waved and clicked goodbyes before swimming back to the bay at a leisurely pace. 

By the time they were out of the water and transformed into their disguises, half of the sun was hidden below the horizon and scorching the ocean edge with warm colors of red and orange. A trickle of stars had begun to reveal themselves against the cobalt sky and Eren realized he had left at breakfast and they must have been out the whole day. This caused his pace to quicken and he walked briskly with confidence down the cobble road  and up the porch steps to the thick wooden door. When he reached the door, however, the flickering light illuminating through the curtain at the left window caught his eye and prompted him to pause.

 _I hate it,_ he thought with a deep, shuddering sigh. _I hate having to pretend._ He turned around and slumped on the porch steps, resting his head on his folded hands while looking up at the darkening sky and enjoying the pleasantness of the intruding night. A breeze ruffled his bangs and tickled his face. Armin burrowed slightly into his shoulder to get comfortable.

They sat there in relative silence, listening to birds cooing their goodnight and crickets beginning their song in the dry grass. Night had once been a time of terror for them, when the ocean turned to cold darkness teeming with unknown dangers and hungry predators. On land, however, the night was beautiful, especially on the full moon. The morning had been misty, but the day had been warm with cool but firm winds that delighted the two mermaids when they breached the surface in their play. For a while, they didn’t worry; about humans, about traveling, about Levi. They were just having fun on a beautiful day.

 _But thing’s change,_ Eren thought. _We can’t have fun like that forever_. They needed somewhere safe to call their own, and if they were going to be breaching the surface so often then he’d rather it be in places that were familiar to him. Like this bay, or with his friend, and maybe one day around this family that had taken him in.

 _I want to be a part of this world,_ he thought with a wavering sigh.

“It’s unfair that such a beautiful world is governed by fate, huh Armin?” Eren said, wiping away the tear that had slipped down his cheek with a sniffle. Armin cooed and rubbed his face against the brunette’s jaw and Eren sniffled again, although smiling slightly. “I guess we can only make the best of what we live with.”

They sat there until the sun set all the way below the horizon and Eren began to feel sleepy from his exciting and strenuous day. He was just beginning to gather the courage to get up and go inside when there was a muffled commotion and the front door flew open.

“That’s it! We’re going to go find him!” Declared a voice that Eren recognized as Isabel's.

“Wait, we need to grab our coats and put on our shoes-“

“I’m sure he hasn’t gone fa-UWHA!”

Farlan's coddling was cut off by a woman's cry after tripping fully over Eren sitting at the top of the porch steps and a feeling of terror ran through mermaid as he believed it might be Isabel. He darted out to catch her and managed to snare the woman before she could fall on the hard cobble road and as someone brought a light out onto the porch and the boy realized he had rescued a very surprised looking Hanji. Her surprise turned to joy and she pointed at his face. “See? Easy find! I knew he hadn't gone far!”

 _“Hanji for the love of god!”_ Isabel exclaimed with a horrified expression.

“Who the hell walks backwards on porch steps in the dark?” Eren sighed shakily as his heart beat settled down from the surprise before squinting up at the three humans on the porch. The brunet realized Levi was the one holding the lamp and the raven's exasperated tone was what he could only imagine was what Levi sounded like when he was worried. 

“Eren!” Isabel exclaimed and hurried down the steps to wrap her arms around his neck in a difficult hug, considering he was still holding Hanji. “Oh thank goodness you’re alright! You were gone the whole day, we were worried sick!” When the red-head pulled back he lowered Hanji back onto her feet who then proceeded to squeeze the air out of him in another hug.

“So…rry…” he wheezed in the surprisingly strong woman's embrace. When Hanji let him go he coughed a bit before continuing. “I didn’t mean to make you sick… do you need some water?” Isabel looked at him incredulously before laughing and giving him another hug.

“It’s an expression! I’m not actually sick!” She laughed and Eren blushed slightly as her hair tickled his cheek.

“Oh…” 

Someone cleared their throat and the two pulled apart to see Levi walking down the steps with his usual blank expression but head slightly turned down.

“Listen, Eren, about this morning-” Levi started but Eren cut him off before he could continue.

“I’m sorry.” The man paused and the women next to them looked at the brunet, then to each other, then back at him.

“You’re… sorry?” Levi repeated as a confused statement.

“Yes. I’m sorry. I completely understand. It was wrong of me to even ask to go with you. So, I’m sorry.” Levi shook his head and stepped closer.

“No- you shouldn’t be apologizing.”

“Yes I should. I didn’t think about all the details. It was irresponsible of me to think you would allow me special privileges and I’m sorry.” Before anyone could interject, Eren yawned and passed the flabbergasted humans before walking up the steps for the front door. “Anyway, we should all get to bed. Hotter months are coming up so nights are going to get shorter!”

He walked into the house, leaving the humans in an unsure silence as he maneuvered his way to the safety of his room. He heard fast footsteps as he reached his door and realized Isabel had followed him and was holding the first aid kit.

“Eren, before you go to bed, I’d like to take out your stitches if that’s okay?” She asked and Eren nodded before continuing inside.

As the human and the mermaid sat on the edge of the bed and turned to each other, Eren put his hands in his lap while Isabel opened the first aid kit and pushed back his bangs.

“How strange… it’s almost completely healed! I would have taken them out yesterday if I had known you were such a fast healer.” Eren chuckled nervously and felt a tugging on his forehead as Isabel cut the knot and slipped out the string with a bit of extra force since the would had healed so fast, though it didn’t hurt at all.

“There we go, all good! Now I should look at that cut on your leg as well,” Isabel said and Eren jumped slightly in surprise.

“Oh… ah heh… you know about that?” he asked with unease.

“Of course! Levi told me the other morning when I caught you too up early. We tell each other everything. Well… almost everything. A girl has her secrets!” Isabel pulled up his leg and started unwrapping the bandage as she talked, however when his leg was finally bare, there was nearly no trace of the wound. “Uhm… where’s the cut?” The red-head asked and Eren swallowed nervously.

“U-uh right there! See it?” He said, pointing at a very thin, slightly pale line going down his leg and Isabel made a noise of realization.

“You really do heal fast…”

“Hehe… I guess I have good blood,” he tried to joke and Isabel smiled at him with one eyebrow raised.

“I guess so. Well, you’re basically all healed up,” Isabel finished and rolled up the used bandage to throw away later, closing the first aid kit before standing and facing him. “We had dinner without you, do you want me to bring you something?”

The brunet hesitated. He wanted to tell Isabel about their fun adventure with the orcas and the dolphins, but all he could do was look away with a dismal expression settling over his face. “No… I’m fine. But thank you,” he said and Isabel regarded him sadly.

“Listen… I wanted to talk to you about this morning. Just one on one.” She sat back down on the bed and Eren looked up at her, bracing himself for the conversation. “Let me say first off that you shouldn't have apologized." Eren looked up at her through his bangs shamefully.

"But I was out of line. I was acting without thinking. I don't want him to hate me..."

"I'm sure he doesn't hate you, in fact we were all bugging him for being so harsh. He was the one who should've apologized but it looks like you beat him to it. Either way..." Isabel placed the kit to the side and laid her hands on top of his. "Levi has a hard time expressing his emotions, but he’s been really talkative ever since you showed up. Maybe it’s because he’s been away for a long time and people change- and you showed up nearly at the same time as him -but I don’t really thinks that’s why. I heard about your little talk-" Eren blushed deeply at her words. "-and I have to admit I think he really likes you, more than just physically, and because of that he doesn’t want you to get hurt, especially under his care. That’s what he did for Farlan and I, although we wanted him to be a part of what we have here as well.”

Eren tilted his head in confusion. “Why doesn’t he stay here with you then?”

Isabel sighed and continued in a whisper. “Don’t tell him I told you this, but Levi’s not much of a people person. In all the time I’ve known him he hasn’t changed much. He orders people around, he’s a total clean freak, and he only talks to people when he must, even with us. He feels like a stranger to his own species. He’d rather be on the ocean than in civilization.” _While I’d rather be here than the ocean…_ Eren thought. “His life has been on repeat for years, but he knows how to handle that. He doesn’t know how to handle _you,_ and as much as I’d love for you to go with him I’m not sure he trusts himself with someone like you.” Eren realized Isabel was trying to articulate her words in a way that was neutral about the situation because although she agrees with Levi that’s it’s dangerous she also would want Eren to go if he could. She truly was a great person and he couldn’t help the smile taking over his face.

“Thank you for telling me this Isabel. I was thinking a lot today and I understand why he doesn’t want me to go. I’ll travel the world some other way, but until then there’s a lot more I’d like to learn.” Isabel smiled at him and got up again but Eren grabbed her arm. “Before you go, can you tell me a few more things about Levi?” he asked with excited, hopeful eyes. Isabel laughed and sat back down again.

“Absolutely!”

~o0o~

“What the hell are they talking about in there?” Levi wondered aloud as laughing erupted from down the hall.

“Probably embarrassing stories from when you were a toddler,” Hanji teased from her lazy lounging along the couch. When Levi shut his book, threw it on the coffee table and started marching for the archway Hanji scrambled to sit up and wave her hands. “Stooop! I was kidding! It’s probably just girl stuff!”

Levi turned to her with a scowl. “Eren isn’t a girl.”

“With those legs I’d take you up on that argument.” Hanji snickered as Levi rolled his eyes but didn't head for the archway again. “Why don’t you go listen in from your own room? We have to go over stock tomorrow and I’d like to get some sleep without your night owl ass around.”

Levi grunted and retrieved his book form the coffee table. “Fine.” Hanji looked at him like a dog that heard the word "treat".

“Wait really?” 

“I mean fine, I’ll go to bed.” Hanji groaned in mock disappointment and flopped back on the couch, calling out goodnight as the man retreated down the hallway to his own room. He made his way down the hall slowly and quietly and when he made it to his door he couldn’t help but pause. He looked at the door behind him with a contemplative look before inevitably leaning in closer to get a hint as to what the two inside were murmuring about. 

“-show you tomorrow, I think you’d look great in them!”

“But aren’t those for… women?”

“Well yes, in this city it’s normal for women to wear earrings but I’ve been to plenty of places where men where them and they looked gorgeous! Oh I think you’d look positively beautiful dressed up in shimmy skirts or gold bands- not real gold unfortunately. Maybe one day we could go together!”

“That sounds incredible!”

Levi pulled away from the door and retreated into his room swiftly and silently, leaning back on it when it was fully shut.

Eren... wearing earrings… emeralds would go great with his eyes…

The older man sighed at his miserably corrupt thoughts. He didn’t know how he was going to say goodbye to those eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments are what brought you this today! (-//w//-) ~ <3  
> (Also sorry I post so rarely)  
> (My god damn horoscope today was like "write bitch" and I was like "okay")


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